Creating a tax ombudsman should be a government priority, the SA Institute for Professional Accountants (Saipa) said.

Minister of finance Pravin Gordhan recently confirmed in parliament that government was looking into establishing a tax ombudsman.

Ettiene Retief, the chairman of Saipa's tax technical sub-committee, said there was no effective recourse at present, other than the courts, for people who wished to contest SA Revenue Service administrative actions.

''SARS' service monitoring office (SSMO) does handle customer complaints, but these are dealt with from the perspective of helping SARS to meet its service charter obligations."

The SSMO was useful in escalating outstanding matters that required SARS' attention, Retief said. ''However, it doesn't concern itself with the merits of your case, but rather with whether or not your complaint is receiving SARS's attention."

While the SSMO was a valuable resource, it still had limited scope of application, he added.

An independent body that people could appeal to if they felt they had been treated unfairly by SARS, was needed, especially since many could not afford to go the legal route, Retief said.

''This is not to detract from the current objection and appeal procedures against an assessment that the taxpayer believes is incorrect."

Retief said the ombud function would deal with matters outside the jurisdiction of the SSMO office, which, although operating independently to some extent, nevertheless remained a SARS function.

How soon SA might get a tax ombud was not clear, although Retief said ''an enormous amount of work" would have to go into setting it up once the go ahead was given.

''There is much to consider: everything from how much authority the office would have, to funding and how it functions on a day to day basis."

But the important first step of accepting the call for a tax ombud had been made.