What’s New at SARS

4 August 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.

1 August 2025 – Income Tax Act, 1962

• Table 3 – Rates at which interest-free or low interest loans are subject to income tax

1 August 2025 – Customs and Excise Act, 1964: Publication details for tariffs amendments notice R6475, as published in Government Gazette 53102 of 1 August 2025, are now available.

31 July 2025 – Customs and Excise Act, 1964: The tariffs amendments notice, scheduled for publication in the Government Gazette, relates to the amendments to –

• Part 1 of Schedule No. 1, by the substitution of tariff subheadings 1701.12, 1701.13, 1701.14, 1701.91, and 1701.99, to increase the rate of customs duty on sugar from 282.85c/kg to 364.68c/kg in terms of the existing variable tariff formula (ITAC Minute 04/2025).

Publication details will be made available later

31 July 2025 – Global Minimum Tax Act, 2024

• Notice by the Minister specifying documents released by the Inclusive Framework that apply for the purposes of the Global Minimum Tax Act, 2024

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.