South African digital tax assistant TaxTim has announced a partnership with tax and advisory firm PwC, which will see the startup launch its services in Namibia in a first step towards African expansion.
TaxTim assists users to file their tax returns through a chat-based platform, with virtual assistant TaxTim asking questions to accurately complete the return. The platform is also integrated with the South African Revenue Service’s (SARS) e-filing system, allowing users to submit their tax return directly through the platform.
The startup launched in South Africa in 2011, participating in Google’s Umbono incubator programme, under which TaxTim received seed funding.
Four years later, TaxTim is now beginning its partner-led African expansion, starting with Namibia which the co-founders say will be a “valuable testing ground”.
For the Namibian roll-out, TaxTim is relying on a team of 15 PwC tax advisors, who have also assisted in making the service Namibia Inland Revenue compliant.
“Working with PwC provides immense credibility for our brand entering this new territory. We couldn’t be more pleased to announce the result of our collaboration. Working with the dedicated team in Namibia and being able to help so many more people with making tax easy is a definite highlight of my professional career,” said TaxTim co-founder and chief financial officer (CFO) Marc Sevitz.
“We designed TaxTim from the ground up to be country-agnostic, so customising the platform with tax rules and branding for Namibia was straightforward and relatively quick. Our server runs on Amazon’s elastic compute cloud, so can scale to meet even the heaviest taxpayer traffic, including the annual rush for last minute submissions,”said TaxTim co-founder and chief technology officer (CTO) Evan Robinson.
The Namibian service is available online at pwc.taxtim.com, and prices for tax return completion will start at NAD370 (US$30).
