What’s New at SARS

31 July 2025 – South Africa recorded a preliminary trade balance surplus of R22.0 billion in June 2025. This surplus was attributable to exports of R170.7 billion and imports of R148.6 billion, inclusive of trade with Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho and Namibia (BELN).

See the full Media Release here.

Or visit the Trade Statistics webpage.

28 July 2025 – Tax Administration Act, 2011

• The Lion Match Company (Pty) Ltd v CSARS (1047/23 and 1067/23) [2025] ZASCA 112 (28 July 2025)

Practice – Postponement – Principles restated and applied.
Tax law – ss 107 and 129 of Tax Administration Act 28 of 2011 – r 44 (7) of Tax Court Rules – whether the Tax Court has the power to upwardly adjust an assessment at the behest of the Commissioner for the South African Revenue Service in the wilful absence of the taxpayer or its legal representatives.

28 July 2025 – The state provides state warehouses for the safekeeping of goods. These are managed by Customs. The purpose of this list of unentered goods is to notify the importer, exporter and any other person that has interest in the goods that the goods have been taken up into the State warehouse and if they remain unentered they will be disposed in accordance with the provisions of the Customs & Excise Act.

See the latest Customs Weekly List of Unentered Goods here.

28 July 2025 – The e@syFile™ Employer version 8.0.0_265 release notes specify the following changes:

• Correction made for users experiencing the ‘Server Error’ when searching for employees.
• Enhancement made for users submitting more than 1000 certificates who experienced a ‘packets’ error message.
• Correction made for users when uploading a Disc submission to SM that includes ETI data.
• Correction made to banking details being updated after importing multiple payroll files.

See more detail in the release notes.

28 July 2025 – Use any of the following digital channels to check your refund status:

• SARS WhatsApp on 0800 11 7277 — just say “Hi” or “Hello” and select “Refund Status”, enter ID/passport/Asylum Seeker number provide your Tax Ref number, and hit “Send”
• SARS MobiApp – on the Home Screen, tap “Refund Status”, and follow the prompts
• SARS USSD: dial *134*7277# – Choose Option 3, enter ID/passport/Asylum Seeker number, hit “Send”

As stated in the SARS Service Charter, SARS aims to pay nine out of every ten taxpayer refunds due within 72 hours (if the refund is more than R100). The time it takes to process your refund also depends on whether your banking details are correct, and/or there are no outstanding returns, and/or you are not being audited.

You can also check your tax return status here.

28 July 2025 – The KwaZulu-Natal mobile tax unit schedules for August and September 2025 are now available.

28 July 2025 – To make it easier for South African taxpayers who are not South African tax residents but who have South African source-based income, SARS made enhancements to the 2025 ITR12 tax return.  These enhancements aim to ensure that non-residents complete the correct required fields in the return. An interim solution to activate this part of the tax return has been introduced via the SARS Online Query System (SOQS). This allows non-resident taxpayers to request the non-resident section of the tax return.  A more permanent solution directly on the tax return through the tax return “wizard” will be introduced later.

To use SOQS to enable the non-resident section of the tax return:

• On the SARS website homepage, click on the SOQS icon, and navigate to the “Non-Resident Tax Return Type”.
• Complete the personal details as prompted.
• Once SARS has validated the information, a One-Time Pin (OTP) will be sent to the contact details on record.
• Choose the 2025 tax year and answer yes or no to the questions that will follow.
• Depending on your answers your tax return will now be in the correct format and can be retrieved through eFiling in the normal way.

The taxpayer’s information will be stored and used in the subsequent year of assessment unless the taxpayer’s circumstances have changed subsequently.

See the updated SARS Online Query System Guide for more detail.

25 July 2025 – The latest Tax Practitioner Connect issue 64 is now available.  In this edition, we inform you about Filing Season 2025 and the new process to submit Donations Tax and Withholding Tax on Royalties using the SARS Online Query System (SOQS). We also share the VAT Connect Newsletter and an urgent notice for customs traders on the Registration, Licensing, and Accreditation system.

25 July 2025 – The Limpopo mobile tax unit schedules for August 2025 are now available.

25 July 2025 – Update: The issue reported on earlier today has been resolved:

We are currently experiencing disruptions with outbound email services due to an issue at our third-party provider. This affects the delivery of emails, including One-Time PINs (OTPs) sent through SARS eFiling. We are working with our third-party provider to resolve this as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

24 July 2025 – Achieving our Vision of a smart, modern SARS with unquestionable integrity that is trusted and admired is of paramount importance. Pivotal to the delivery of our vision are our digital platforms and technology infrastructure. To provide clarity and certainty, make it easy for taxpayers and traders to comply with their obligations and building public trust and confidence, our technology assets must demonstrate the highest levels of availability, robustness, and security.

In accordance with our Vision and Strategic Objectives, which include modernising our systems to provide Digital and Streamlined online services, we are hard at work ensuring that our digital platforms and technology infrastructure are available, robust, and secure, by performing regular upgrades, enhancements, and maintenance.

Considering the above, SARS Digital platform upgrades are scheduled for:

Friday, 25 July 2025 from 19h00 to 23h00.

During this time, you may experience intermittent service interruption on our eFiling, Tax and Customs Digital Platforms.

23 July 2025 – The Prohibited and Restricted Imports and Exports list has been updated.

The below tariff headings do not require a Letter of Authority.

• • 8465.91
  • 8465.92
  • 8465.93
  • 8465.94
  • 8465.95
  • 8465.96
  • 8465.99

23 July 2025 – Some users may face login challenges on MobiApp. When the message ‘Sorry! Your login request was not successful’ is displayed, follow these easy steps on eFiling to remove your Mobile Application as a method under Two-Factor Authentication, and leave only One Time Pin (OTP) as a method of authentication.

See the easy steps and screens here.

21 July 2025 – The state provides state warehouses for the safekeeping of goods. These are managed by Customs. The purpose of this list of unentered goods is to notify the importer, exporter and any other person that has interest in the goods that the goods have been taken up into the State warehouse and if they remain unentered they will be disposed in accordance with the provisions of the Customs & Excise Act.

See the latest Customs Weekly List of Unentered Goods here.

21 July 2025 – Filing Season for individual taxpayers, both provisional and non-provisional, opens today, 21 July 2025. All taxpayers not auto assessed, are encouraged to use our digital channels, such as eFiling and the SARS MobiApp, to submit their returns.

To avoid penalties, taxpayers must submit accurate information promptly. For smooth Filing Season 2025, taxpayers are urged to use the following communication channels with SARS:

• For more information see the SARS Website: visit the Filing Season webpage.
• Digital channels: See our Send an Online Query System (SOQS) features on the Digital Channels webpage.
• SARS WhatsApp: send “Hi” or “Hello” to 0800 117 277.
• AI Assistant: available 24/7 on the SARS website to answer queries.
• Dial *134*7277#: to access SARS services.
• SARS YouTube: visit @sarstax for how-to videos.

Taxpayers are using SARS’s digital channels successfully. There is no need to visit SARS Service Centres. If you must, book an appointment first to avoid long queues.

Taxpayers who owe SARS are urged to make payments as soon as possible or make payment arrangements.

SARS urges taxpayers to remain extremely vigilant and keep their details confidential. There have been many attempts by scammers to defraud taxpayers. Taxpayers are reminded that SARS will never ask taxpayers to use any link to engage with it. Taxpayers must protect their eFiling login details and use only registered tax practitioners.

Information on the latest scams can be found here. To report or request information on phishing, taxpayers can send an email to [email protected].

18 July 2025 – The South African Revenue Service (SARS) is excited to announce that 5.8 million taxpayers received Auto Assessments this year, which is up from 5 million in 2024. Importantly, 99.6% of Auto Assessments issued to date have remained unchanged by taxpayers. Equally impressive is that R10.6 billion in refunds due to taxpayers have already been paid within 72 hours.

With Auto Assessment, SARS uses data sourced from third-party data providers to assess taxpayers. In keeping with our aspiration to “make tax just happen”, taxpayers do not have to do anything when they are issued an auto assessment. For the few taxpayers that may need to update their tax returns with changes in case of outstanding information which SARS does not have, this can done via eFiling or the SARS Mobi App.

The journey to build A Smart, Modern SARS, characterised by the use of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science is bearing fruit. More than 2.1 million taxpayers have interacted with SARS through our digital channels. Of these, 1.1 million interactions were serviced by the SARS Online Query System, 707 000 through WhatsApp, and 290 000 with Lwazi Chat Bot. By making it easy and simple to engage with SARS through eFiling or the SARS Mobi App, more than 10.2 million unique users have successfully logged in since 4 July.

The successful completion of the Auto Assessment period, which ran from 7 to 20 July 2025, will be followed by the tax filing period via eFiling and the SARS MobiApp for individual taxpayers from Monday, 21 July–20 October 2025. Provisional taxpayers can also file from 21 July 2025–19 January 2026. For the majority of those who submit a return online, an assessment outcome is issued in under 5 seconds if all is in order. This world class service is done whilst managing the risk of impermissible or fraudulent refunds with sophisticated machine learning and AI models.

To avoid penalties, taxpayers must submit accurate information promptly. For smooth Filing Season 2025, taxpayers are urged to use the following communication channels with SARS:

• SARS Website: visit www.sars.gov.za and click on the “Individuals” tab.
• SARS Online Query System (SOQS): https://tools.sars.gov.za/soqs.
• SARS WhatsApp: send “Hi” or “Hello” to 0800 117 277.
• AI Virtual Assistant: available 24/7 on the SARS website to answer queries.
• Dial *134*7277#: to access SARS services.
• SARS YouTube: visit @sarstax for how-to videos.

Taxpayers are using SARS’s digital channels successfully. There is no need to visit SARS Service Centres. If you must, book an appointment first to avoid long queues.

Taxpayers who owe SARS are urged to make payments as soon as possible or make payment arrangements. Only refunds more than R100 due to taxpayers will be automatically paid into their bank accounts within 72 hours once the assessment is completed.

SARS urges taxpayers to remain extremely vigilant and keep their details confidential. There have been many attempts by scammers to defraud taxpayers. Taxpayers are reminded that SARS will never ask taxpayers to use any link to engage with it. Taxpayers must protect their eFiling login details and use only registered tax practitioners.

Information on the latest scams can be found on the SARS website: www.sars.gov.za. To report or request information on phishing, taxpayers can send an email to [email protected].

Edward Kieswetter, SARS Commissioner, expressed his satisfaction that Auto Assessment has been a game changer in making tax easy for taxpayers to comply. He said that “SARS is working hard to give taxpayers the best service, where “tax just happens”. He noted that the improvement of SARS’s digital platforms is saving taxpayers’ time and eliminating the need to travel to SARS Service Centres. “Ultimately, our aim is to make the best service to be no service at all. As we start with Filing Season for those not auto assessed, from Monday, 21 July, I encourage taxpayers rather to use our digital channels than come queue at our Service Centres”.

For more information, please contact [email protected].

18 July 2025: High Court Judgments

• Kerbyn Cape 2 (Pty) Ltd v CSARS (15899/2023) [2025] ZAWHC (11 July 2025)
• Royal AM Football Club (Pty) Ltd v National Soccer League and Others (2025/054266) [2025] ZAGPPHC 664 (7 July 2025)

Summaries are available on the High Court Judgments page

18 July 2025 – Customs and Excise Act, 1964: Publication details for tariffs amendments notice R6438, as published in Government Gazette 53020 of 18 July 2025, are now available.

18 July 2025 – The new features designed to streamline online registration, return submission and overall management of Air Passenger Tax (APT) process were implemented on 30 June 2025.

The Air Passenger Tax guide has been updated to include detailed guidance for converting Excel files into CSV files.

For more information, see the Air Passenger Tax webpage.