What’s New at SARS

28 March 2023 – Supreme Court of Appeal Judgments

• United Manganese of Kalahari (Pty) Ltd v CSARS (12312021) [2023] ZASCA 29 (24 March 2023)
• CSARS v Rappa Resources (Pty) Ltd (12052021) [2023] ZASCA 28 (24 March 2023)

Summaries are available on the Supreme Court of Appeal Judgments page

27 March 2023 – Employees’ tax (PAYE) on your pension or annuity for the tax period 1 March 2023 to 29 February 2024

To view the FAQs relating to the fixed PAYE deduction rate of your pension where you have more than one source of income, click here.

25 March 2023 – Customs and Excise Act, 1964: Rule amendment notice R3194 under sections 19A and 120, as published in Government Gazette 48293, relating to the amendments to rule 19A4.01(b)(ii), to clarify that a special customs and excise storage warehouse may be licensed for the storage of fuel levy goods received from a customs and excise manufacturing warehouse for removal to a BELN country or for export (including supply as stores for foreign-going ships) (DAR242)

25 March 2023 – Tax Administration Act, 2011, and Employment Tax Incentive Act, 2013

• SARSTC 2022/37 (ADM) [2023] ZATC CPT (23 February 2023)

Procedure – determining good cause in the interest of justice: Whether good cause was established not to grant the appellant the default judgment it sought.

24 March 2023 – The PAYE Employer Reconciliation BRS for the 2024 tax year was updated.

The PAYE BRS for Employer Reconciliation version 22 1 0 is now published (previous version was 22 0 0).

The validation rules for the Directive Information fields have been amended.

24 March 2023 – The tax workshop schedules for North West province during April to June 2023 have been published.

24 March 2023 – RFP16/2022: Renewal of current VMWare software support and subscription and the procurement of additional VMWare software licenses

The questions and answers document is now available.

24 March 2023 – Beware of an email titled ‘SARS Letter for you’ or ‘Letter of Demand’. The email threatens the recipient with a court order and blacklisting, and has a link to a phishing website. Do not click on any links. See an example of this scam. 

Forward any suspicious mails to [email protected] or keep an eye on the Scams and Phishing webpage for a list of the latest scams.

23 March 2023 – Tax Court Judgments

• SARSTC IT 45935 (ADM) [2023] ZATC CPT (23 March 2023)
• SARSTC 46206 (IT) [2023] ZATC JHB (21 February 2023)

Summaries are available on the Tax Court Judgments page

22 March 2023 – The SARS Third Party Data Annual Submissions process for the period 1 March 2022 – 28 February 2023 opens on 01 April 2023 and will close on 31 May 2023.

For more information, please see the Third Party Data Submission Platform webpage.

22 March 2023 – Customs Weekly List of Unentered Goods

22 March 2023 – RFP36/2022: Provision of medical surveillance, immunizations and related services

22 March 2023 – Employees’ tax (PAYE) on your pension or annuity for the tax period 1 March 2023 to 29 February 2024

Where a pensioner has one source of income during a tax year, our employees’ tax (PAYE) deduction system ensures the correct PAYE deductions from a pension.

However, where a pensioner is in receipt of more than one source of income, the different sources of income are combined at the end of the tax year to determine the correct amount of tax due. The sum of the income typically places the taxpayer into a higher tax bracket, which normally creates tax due to SARS at year-end.

This is not a new principle and it applies to everyone, not only pensioners.

As a service to pensioners with more than one source of income, legislation makes provision for SARS to determine a more accurate monthly PAYE deduction tax rate. We do this by using the latest data available to SARS and issuing that PAYE tax rate to your pension administrator. We refer to this as a fixed PAYE deduction rate. Your pension administrator will then deduct a more accurate amount of PAYE from your pension. The aim of the more accurate fixed PAYE deduction rate is to ensure that you are not faced with a significant tax debt to SARS at year end.

That said, it is ultimately your decision whether to make use of this service. If, for example, you are already saving towards a tax debt at year end, then you may wish to opt out of this service. You can opt out of this service by informing your pension administrator of your choice to opt out. If you opted-out in the previous tax year, your choice will remain unless you inform your pension administrator in writing that you wish to participate in this service.

In summary:

• Unless you wish to opt out, you do not have to do anything, because SARS will provide your pension administrator with a fixed PAYE deduction rate mentioned above that is applicable to you;
• SARS will calculate and provide the fixed PAYE deduction rate to your pension administrator during March this year;
• SARS calculates the fixed PAYE deduction rate by taking into account other pensions and/or other employment income;
• Unless you opt out, your pension administrator will use the fixed PAYE deduction rate to deduct PAYE from your pension;
• If you already opted out of the service in the previous tax year, your pension administrator will use the normal PAYE deduction rate to deduct PAYE from your pension, unless you inform them in writing that you wish to participate in this service;
• The fixed PAYE deduction rate provided by SARS will be valid for the whole tax year, but you may elect to opt-out during any time by informing your pension administrator of your choice to opt out in writing;
• The fixed PAYE deduction rate determined by SARS is likely to be higher than what you are used to, but in return you are likely to avoid a significant tax bill at the end of the tax year;
• If you participate in this service you may at any time request your pension administrator to deduct PAYE at a tax rate higher than the fixed PAYE deduction rate provided by SARS. Similarly, if you are not participating in this service you may at any time request your pension administrator to deduct PAYE at a rate that is higher than the normal PAYE deduction rates.

20 March 2023 – RFI0006/2022: E-Learning Management System

• Please note that the closing date for RFI0006/2022 has been extended to 11 April 2023.

20 March 2023 – USSD or quick codes as it is known, is a new feature available to taxpayers. Taxpayers can now request specific Personal Income Tax related services by typing in a USSD string *134*7277# into their mobile devices to SARS. The benefits are that it is free of charge and you don’t need to have smart phone or internet connectivity.

The following additional tax related services are offered to taxpayers via the USSD channel:

• What’s my Tax number?
• Account balance
• Do I need to file a tax return?
• eBooking

See the SARS Mobile Tax Services webpage for more information and a link to the online Guide.

20 March 2023 – The following SARS branches are closed today. All virtual appointments will still be honoured. Continue to make use of our digital channels services.

The status at 10:00:

• Benoni
• Mbombela
• Witbank

The following Mobile Tax Units are not deployed today:

• Randfontein
• Pinetown

Status at 10:30:

• Uitenhage now also closed

17 March 2023 – RFP38/2022: Appointment of a service provider for health and safety training

• Please note that the closing date for RFP38/2022 has been extended to 14 April 2023.
• SARS has published an updated version of the Main RFP, SARS Business Requirements, Pricing Template and the Technical Evaluation Criteria.

  Bidders are advised to regularly visit the SARS website for any updates.

17 March 2023 – Customs & Excise Act, 1964: Publication details for tariff amendment notice R.3155, as published in Government Gazette 48211 on 17 March 2023, are now available.

17 March 2023 – The latest Tax Practitioner Connect Newsletter Issue 40 is available.  This issue includes information on admin penalties for the different tax types, enhancements for Trust registration, the new Excise submission and payment dates, upcoming deadlines, the latest webinar and the latest branch closure.

16 March 2023 – Deregistration of Tax Types

View the latest presentation which outlines the relevant procedures to be followed when a taxpayer applies for a deregistration of a tax type.