Compiled By Dylan Bettencourt
- Sars says its AI systems check bank statements, VAT returns and company records to spot strange patterns and false claims.
- The taxman says humans still make final compliance decisions, but AI will help speed up taxpayer services and verifications.
The South African Revenue Service (Sars) says artificial intelligence has already helped stop more than R100-million in improper payments from leaving South Africa.
The taxman says this is only the start of a bigger plan to use AI to catch false claims, speed up services and help taxpayers during filing season.
Sars commissioner Johnstone Makhubu said the tax body has been using machine learning in its compliance work for the past 10 years, iAfrica reported.
Its systems now use algorithms and large language models to read information from different sources and help officials spot risk.
Sars said the systems check bank statements, VAT returns and Companies and Intellectual Property Commission data at the same time.
They use matching tools and analytics to pick up strange patterns and false declarations.
But Sars said AI does not make final compliance decisions on its own.
“AI therefore supports and augments decision-making but does not autonomously trigger any compliance actions,” Sars said.
The risk warnings go to Sars’s case selection division. Human officials then check the cases against other information and business rules before any verification, audit or investigation starts.
The bigger plan is to make AI more useful for ordinary taxpayers.
Sars has already launched Ask Lwazi, an AI assistant on its website. It wants the tool to become more personal so taxpayers can ask questions in a controlled space.
Makhubu said China’s tax authority can already use AI to handle 80% of incoming call queries.
“We think we will also be able to do so, and quite accurately,” he said.
Sars also wants AI to help with e-verification.
This would allow AI agents to read documents through optical character recognition, known as OCR, and process them faster.
Deputy commissioner Carl Scholtz said Sars is also using AI to match and clean third-party data from employers, banks, medical aids and other institutions.
Auto-assessments start on 1 July. Individual taxpayers can file from 13 July to 23 October.
Sars says the future will bring faster checks, smarter risk warnings and more services that do not require taxpayers to wait for human help.
Pictured above: Sars says artificial intelligence has already helped block more than R100-million in improper payments.
Image source: File
