Latest News On South African Revenue Services

11 January 2022 – Effective 1 January 2021, South African banks no longer accept cheques.  All references to cheques in the Customs policy, Standard Operating Procedure and the Completion of the DA 70 annex have been removed. The Manual for the Completion of the DA 70 (SC-CF-32) is now published as SC-CF-25-A01. For more information see the Customs Provisional Payments policy.

6 January 2022 – The SARS Nigel branch is closed this afternoon and will reopen tomorrow morning. All virtual appointments will continue as agreed. Our apologies for the inconvenience.

6 January 2022 – The South African Revenue Service (SARS) is saddened to note the passing yesterday evening of its first Commissioner, Mr Trevor van Heerden. He was a skilled and dedicated civil servant who committed more than forty years of his life to SARS and one of its predecessors, Inland Revenue.

Mr Van Heerden played an instrumental role in the establishment of SARS as we know it today. He was also deeply involved in the development of the taxation of fringe benefits and the Value-Added Tax Act, 1991.

Commissioner Edward Kieswetter, on behalf of SARS, expresses his deepest condolences to the Van Heerden family. He wishes the family strength during this difficult time.

For more information, contact [email protected]

4 January 2022 – The ePenalty pilot focussed on the submission of advance loading and arrival cargo reports for imported goods in the sea and air modalities, as well as on export goods in the rail modality. The purpose was to provide cargo reporters with specific details of potential non-compliance on cargo reporting for them to take remedial action before monetary penalties are imposed. Following the conclusion of the pilot, engagements with affected stakeholders highlighted the need to receive additional ePenalty compliance letters to aid in further identifying potential shortcomings in the reporting of cargo by trade.

SARS is committed to make it easy for traders to comply with their obligations and to work with them to improve their reporting compliance. As a result, it has been decided to extend the ePenalty pilot to 31 March 2022.

For more information see the Letter to Trade on the extension of ePenalty.

31 December 2021 – The 2022 Key Collection Dates and Important Dates were updated on the website. For the detail, see the monthly calendar.

31 December 2021 – Customs & Excise Act, 1964: Publication details for tariff amendment notice R1649, as published in Government Gazette 45702 on 31 December 2021, are now available.

30 December 2021 – Customs & Excise Act, 1964: The tariff amendment notice, scheduled for publication in the Government Gazette, relates to the amendments to –

• provisional payments in relation to anti-dumping duty against the alleged dumping of frozen bone-in portions of fowls of the species Gallus Domesticus, classifiable in tariff heading 0207.14.9, originating in or imported from Brazil, Denmark, Ireland, Poland and Spain – ITAC Minute 12/2021.

Publication details will be made available later

28 December 2021 – SARS today released trade statistics for November 2021 recording a preliminary trade balance surplus of R35.83 billion attributable to exports of R162.79 billion and imports of R126.96 billion.

24 December 2021 – Customs & Excise Act, 1964: Publication details for correction notice R1645, as published in Government Gazette 45696 on 24 December 2021, are now available.

23 December 2021 – Customs & Excise Act, 1964: The correction notice, scheduled for publication in the Government Gazette, relates to the amendments to –

• Part 3 to Schedule No. 2, by the deletion of the word “stainless” where it appears in Notices Nos. R. 1589, R. 1590 and R. 1591 of Government Gazette 45617 dated 10 December 2021 (with retrospective effect from 10 December 2021).

Publication details will be made available later

23 December 2021 – National Legislation: The Minister of Finance tabled the following bills in the National Assembly on 11 November 2021:

• Rates and Monetary Amounts and Amendment of Revenue Laws Bill [B21—2021]
• Taxation Laws Amendment Bill [B22—2021]
• Taxation Laws Amendment Bill [B22A—2021] (30 November 2021)
• Taxation Laws Amendment Bill [B22B—2021] (30 November 2021)
• Tax Administration Laws Amendment Bill [B23—2021]

22 December 2021 – The latest list for Awarded Tenders from 2019 – 2021 has been published, see the Awarded Tenders webpage for more information.

22 December 2021 – Tax Administration Act, 2011: Supreme Court of Appeal judgment

• Purveyors South Africa Mine Services (Pty) Ltd v CSARS (135/2021) [2021] ZASCA 170 (7 December 2021)

Voluntary disclosure – whether taxpayer met the requirements of section 227 of the Tax Administration Act 28
of 2011 – Commissioner for the South African Revenue Service had knowledge of information subsequently
disclosed and prompted taxpayer to comply – disclosure not voluntary –
requirements of section 227 not satisfied – appeal dismissed

17 December 2021 – The South African Revenue Service and the National Treasury, have in the past 13 years jointly published the annual Tax Statistics bulletin.

The 14^th Tax Statistics publication will be published on 20 January 2022. The 2021 edition will provide an overview of tax revenue collections and tax return information for the 2017 to 2020 tax years, as well as the 2016/17 to 2020/2021 fiscal years.

The 2021 Tax Statistics Publication will continue to build on the feedback received regarding previous editions and will largely follow the format below:

• Chapter 1 provides a summary of aggregate tax revenue collection trends.
• Chapter 2 gives an overview of assessed personal income tax revenues of registered individual taxpayers. It also provides information on taxable income by income group, age, gender, source of income, fringe benefits, allowances and deductions.
• Chapter 3 gives an overview of corporate income tax revenues. Information of taxable income by income group, sector and type of business entity is provided.
• Chapter 4 gives an overview of VAT. It gives a breakdown of VAT receipts and refunds by sectors and payment category as well as an overview of data on input and output VAT as derived from VAT returns submitted by vendors.
• Chapter 5 provides information on the customs value of imported goods by product type in terms of the Harmonised System, to chapter level, as well as Import VAT, customs/import duty and ad valorem excise duty revenues on imported goods.
• Chapter 6 provides information on other collections outside of the main tax types. These include data on Transfer Duty, Capital Gains Tax, Mineral and Petroleum Resources Royalty, SACU trade and revenue data as well as Diesel refunds.

As usual, an electronic version of the Tax Statistics and the tables will be published on both the SARS and National Treasury websites after the release of the publication.

For further information, please consult SARS or NT, at [email protected] and [email protected].