What’s New at SARS

16 July 2024 – The Free State and Northern Cape Tax Unit schedules for July to October 2024 are now available.

15 July 2024 – The Mpumalanga Mobile Tax Unit schedules for July to September 2024 are now available.

15 July 2024 – Binding Private Rulings

• Binding Private Ruling 404 – Expenditure incurred in respect of environmental conservation

15 July 2024 – 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.

15 July 2024 – SARS is currently experiencing extremely high volumes on our online channels which is leading to intermittent slowdown and service interruption. Our technical teams are actively working on optimising and improving response times in order to provide the best service experience. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

15 July 2024 – Prioritise your tax matters with SARS self-help channels! Filing Season 2024 for individual taxpayers opens today 15 July to 21 October 2024. Use the available SARS self-help channels, such as eFiling, the SARS MobiApp, SARS USSD (*134*7277) and the SARS Online Query System (SOQS), to manage your taxes efficiently and effortlessly.

Get started today and experience hassle-free tax management!

#YourTaxMatters

See the Filing Season 2024 webpage for more information.

12 July 2024 – Tax Administration Act, 2011

• Christoffel Hendrik Wiese and Others v CSARS (1307/2022) [2024] ZASCA 111 (12 July 2024)

Taxation – recovery of tax debt from third party in terms of s 183 of Tax Administration Act, 28 of 2011 (the TAA) – whether term ‘tax debt’ envisages existence of assessed tax indebtedness at the time of dissipation of assets to obstruct the collection of tax debt – admissibility of transcript of evidence at inquiry in subsequent proceedings in terms of s 56 of the TAA.

12 July 2024 – Achieving our Vision 2024 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 maintenance are scheduled for Friday, 12 July 2024 from 19h30 to 21h30.
During this time, you may experience intermittent service interruption on our Tax and Customs Digital Platforms.

11 July 2024 – The Boiketlong pop-up branch schedule for July 2024 is now available.

11 July 2024 – The Mbombela tax workshop schedule for July 2024 is now available.

11 July 2024 – The latest scam is an SMS indicating you are eligible for a refund. To ‘complete your refund’ the scam is suggesting that you click a link, which is linking to a fraudulent website.

See an example of the latest refund scam here.

Make sure the email or SMS is genuine before you click on any link.

Protect yourself from scams and phishing!

Do not open or respond to emails from unknown sources.

Beware of emails or SMSs asking for personal, tax, banking or eFiling details.

SARS will never send you hyperlinks to other websites.

Watch our short tutorial video on how to spot scams.

10 July 2024 – Achieving our Vision 2024 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 Wednesday, 10 July 2024 from 19:00 to 22:00.

During this time, you may experience intermittent service interruption on our Tax and Customs Digital Platforms, including WhatApp, USSD and Lwazi Chatbot.

10 July 2024 – As a result of the modernisation of systems and process, the delivery and collection of bonds changed from Alberton to the SARS Head Office in Pretoria with immediate effect.

The address for the delivery and collection of bonds is:

Revenue Accounting
Block D Ground Floor
Lehae La SARS
299 Bronkhorst Street
Brooklyn
Pretoria

Arrangements for delivery/collection of bonds must be made via the following email address: [email protected].

9 July 2024 – The KwaZulu-Natal Mobile Tax Unit schedules for July and August 2024 are now available.

9 July 2024 – The Eastern Cape Mobile Tax Unit schedules for August to September 2024 are now available.

9 July 2024 – Achieving our Vision 2024 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 Tuesday, 9 July 2024 from 19:00 to 22:00.

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

8 July 2024 – SARS Bellville branch has relocated from the Corner of Teddington & De Lange Road to 14 Strand Road, Bellville. From 9 July 2024 taxpayers can visit the branch at the new location. You need to make an appointment to visit a SARS branch.

For more information, see the Bellville branch webpage.

8 July 2024 – The SARS Tariff Determination enhancement project, which includes the publication of Tariff Determinations is divided into two phases: the first phase involves the online processing, issuing and publication of new applications by relevant internal users only, the publication will exclude old cases which were finalised before the implementation of the new system in May 2024. Traders will not be able to submit applications electronically as yet. Electronic submission of new applications by traders will follow in the second phase of the project which is planned for around September 2024. The abridged version of the finalised tariff determinations can be viewed via our search engine from the 1st of July 2024.

8 July 2024 – Taxpayers can now use WhatsApp to interact with SARS for tax advice and specific personal income tax queries.

To initiate an interaction, taxpayers should simply text a greeting i.e., “Hi or Hello”. SARS will respond with a description of the service offerings and a service request menu.

To engage SARS via WhatsApp:

• From your mobile phone: save the SARS WhatsApp number, 0800 11 7277, in your contact list;
• From your desktop: Click here to launch the SARS WhatsApp desktop version and follow the prompts.

You can do the following via WhatsApp:

• Request your Tax Reference Number;
• Request your Statement of Account;
• Request your Return Refund Status;
• Request your Audit Status; and
• Request your Notice of Assessment.

To authenticate you successfully, you will need to WhatsApp us from your mobile device number registered on the SARS systems.

For more information, see the Mobile Services webpage and the Guide to SARS Mobile Tax Services.

8 July 2024 – It was previously communicated on 16 November 2022 that SARS intends to withdraw Practice Note 31: “Interest paid on moneys borrowed” (PN 31) for years of assessment commencing on or after 1 March 2023. In the same notice it was also requested that representation be made for legislative amendments in place of PN 31 as part of the Budget 2023 Annexure C process

Following the representations received National Treasury proposed the introduction of section 11G – “Deduction of expenses incurred in the production of interest”, which was taken up in the Taxation Laws Amendment Act No.17 of 2023. The proposed effective date of section 11G is for years of assessment commencing on or after 1 January 2025.

The withdrawal of PN 31 will therefore be delayed and will coincide with the effective date of section 11G.

See Practice note 31/1994 here.