What’s New at SARS

5 July 2024 – The Benoni branch is closing permanently with effect from 5 July 2024. Virtual appointments will still be honoured. See all branches in Gauteng here.

5 July 2024 – Income Tax Act, 1962

• Tax Exemption Guide for Small Business Funding Entities

5 July 2024 – Income Tax Act, 1962

• Draft Guide – Income Tax Benefits in Special Economic Zones

Due date for comment: 30 August 2024

5 July 2024 – The Traditional African Beer and Alcohol Powder Products policies have been revised as follows:  

• Amended to include alcohol powders in the production of TAB products, resulting in the name change of the documents from Traditional African Beer to Traditional African Beer and Alcohol Powder Products.
• Updated Vis Major losses and its exclusionary items.

The Accounting Period and Submission Rules external annexure has been revised to include alcohol powder products into the Traditional African Beer naming convention.  

Updated documents: 

• SE-TAB-02 – Traditional African Beer and Alcohol Powder Products – External Policy 
• SE-ACC-04-A01 – Accounting Period and Submission Rules – External Annexure 

5 July 2024 – Customs and Excise Act, 1964: Publication details for tariff amendments notice R5026, as published in Government Gazette 50904 of 5 July 2024, are now available.

4 July 2024 – Income Tax Act, 1962

• Interpretation Note 95 (Issue 3) – Deduction for energy efficiency savings

3 July 2024 – Income Tax Act, 1962

• Interpretation Note 95 (Issue 2) – Deduction for energy-efficiency savings

4 July 2024 – Customs and Excise Act, 1964: The tariff amendments notice, scheduled for publication in the Government Gazette, relates to the –

• imposition of provisional payments in relation to safeguard duties against the increased imports of hot-rolled steel products, classifiable in tariff subheadings 7208.10, 7208.25, 7208.26, 7208.27, 7208.36, 7208.37, 7208.38, 7208.39, 7208.40, 7208.51, 7208.52, 7208.53, 7208.54, 7208.90, 7211.14, 7225.30, 7225.40, 7225.99, 7226.99, 7211.13, 7211.19, and 7226.91 (ITAC Report 730).

Publication details will be made available later

4 July 2024 –  If you want to know if you are in the auto-assessment population this year, you can check your status on the SARS Online Query System (SOQS). Remember we are rolling out the auto-assessments in batches over a two week period, from 1 to 14 July 2024.

In other words, even though SOQS may indicate that you are part of the auto-assessment population, the auto-assessment (ITA34) will only be available on eFiling when it’s rolled out according to the schedule.

Please wait for your auto-assessment notice before you login to eFiling or call the Contact Centre, as it will not be available on eFiling before the notice was sent.

3 July 2024 — The Commissioner for the South African Revenue Service (SARS), Mr. Edward Kieswetter, warmly welcomes the reappointment of Mr. Enoch Godongwana, as the Minister of Finance and Dr David Masondo as the Deputy Minister of Finance, as well as the appointment of Mr. Ashor Sarupen as the second Deputy Minister of Finance.

The Commissioner also extended congratulatory wishes to the members of the newly appointed Ministers and Deputy Ministers, expressing optimism that this is a defining moment in the history of our democracy.

Read the full Media Release here.

3 July 2024 – RFP09/2024:  Integrated Pest Control Management services for a period of sixty (60) months for SARS offices nationwide.

3 July 2024 – A tax refund scam is doing the rounds pretending to be from SARS. Please don’t click on the link given in the message and delete the scam message immediately. An example of the scam was published on our Scams & Phishing webpage.

3 July 2024 – Income Tax Act, 1962, and Transfer Duty Act, 1949

• Binding General Ruling 20 (Issue 4) – Meaning of the expression “substantially the whole”

3 July 2024 – Income Tax Act, 1962, and Transfer Duty Act, 1949

• Binding General Ruling 20 (Issue 3) – Interpretation of the expression “substantially the whole”

2 July 2024 – The Limpopo mobile tax unit and tax workshop schedules for July 2024 are now available.

2 July 2024 – The Western Cape Mobile Tax Unit schedule for August 2024 is now available.

1 July 2024 – To encourage individuals to invest in clean electricity-generation capacity, the solar energy tax credit is available for one year.  On the Solar Tax Rebate webpage you will find everything you need to know about this rebate and how to claim this filing season starting 15 July 2024.