What’s New at SARS

15 April 2025 – The submission period of the Employer Annual Reconciliation Declaration (EMP501) is now open until 31 May 2025. All reconciliation declarations must include the most up-to-date and accurate employee payroll information, as well as the tax deducted for the full tax year, from 1 March 2024 to 28 February 2025.

Importantly, the employer’s annual reconciliation must be submitted by 31 May 2025 to ensure that employees’ tax assessments and pre-populated tax returns are prepared accurately.

The submission of correct and accurate employee information by employers on time contributes to the economic growth of our country.

For more information, employers can watch instructional videos on “How to submit EMP501 declarations” on our Step-by-step videos webpage.

15 April 2025 – With reference to our previous communication, enhancements to the Tax Directives system have been implemented in line with the ‘IBIR-006 Tax Directives Interface Specification Version 6.803.

We sincerely appreciate your continued support in our mission to deliver the strategic intent of providing clarity and certainty, thus making it easier for taxpayers and traders to meet their obligations. As part of this commitment, we consistently maintain and enhance our systems to ensure safe and secure digital platforms.

Thank you to those who assisted with the Trade Testing for this solution, your participation and cooperation is valued.

14 April 2025 – Income Tax Act, 1962

• SARSTC IT 76704 (IT) [2024] ZATC CPT (24 May 2024)

Whether SARS’s rule 31 statement represented a fundamental and impermissible change of tack from its assessment and that sought to rescue SARS from the consequences of its refusal to accept the cogency of information provided to it.

11 April 2025 – The past week, nearly 450 delegates from 135 countries and jurisdictions, as well as observers from 11 International Organisations, met in Cape Town on 7-10 April at the 17th Plenary meeting of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS), hosted by the government of South Africa.

The agenda included fruitful discussions on BEPS implementation, the Two-Pillar Solution to Address the Tax Challenges Arising from the Digitalisation of the Economy, and preparing a stocktake report for the G20 on the progress of BEPS implementation. In addition, new areas of common interest, such as global mobility and the interaction between tax policy, inequality and growth, will be explored. Discussions on domestic resource mobilisation also acknowledged the perspectives of developing countries, including the ongoing need for capacity building.

See more information here – Inclusive Framework concludes successful meeting in South Africa.

11 April 2025 – From 11 April 2025, the IRP3(a) – Application for a Tax Directive: Gratuities and Two-Pot Savings Withdrawals Benefit must be used by the Fund when paying a Savings Withdrawal Benefit, and on application the relief from South African tax on the Savings Withdrawal Benefit income will be considered.

For more information, see the Relief from South African tax for Pension and Annuity Income webpage and the I want a Tax Directives webpage.

11 April 2025 – The tax directive system, forms, guides and standard operating procedures have been updated to incorporate the 2025 legislative changes which include the following:

RST01 Tax Directive Application Form

•  The application for requesting relief from South African tax is now fully automated. Taxpayers who require SARS to apply the provisions of a Double Taxation Agreement (DTA) for pensions and/or annuities payable from a South African Retirement Fund can now submit their application via eFiling.
• SARS will evaluate the tax directive application within 21 working days to determine if the pensions and/or annuities payable to the taxpayer will not be subject to tax in South Africa under the applicable DTA.

IRP3(a) Tax Directive Application Form

• A new reason – Backdated (Antedated) Salaries and/or Pensions, has been added to enable employers to include correct information to assist employees who wish to opt to be taxed in terms of section 7A (i.e. employees’ tax has accrued in the prior tax year(s)).
• The process for non-residents who require a DTA to be considered on the taxation of a Savings Withdrawal Benefit was included.

Form B Tax Directive Application Form

• The allowable transfers for the reasons Transfer unclaimed benefit’ and Transfer – Inactive Member with Insufficient Information were updated.
• The tax directive reason ‘Emigration Withdrawal’ was removed as the enabling provision in the Act was deleted effective from 1 September 2024.

Form C Tax Directive Application Form

• The tax directive reason ‘Emigration Withdrawal’ was removed as the enabling provision in the Act was deleted effective 1 September 2024.
• A new tax directive reason ‘Transfer before Retirement [Par 2(1)(c)] was added. With effect from 1 March 2025 paragraph 2(1)(c) read with paragraph 6A of the Second Schedule to the Act provides that a member of a retirement annuity fund, who has attained the normal retirement age, as defined in the rules of the fund, but before electing to retire from that retirement annuity fund, may transfer his or her retirement interest in that retirement annuity fund, to another retirement annuity fund.

IRP3(c) Tax Directive Application Form

• Trusts will be able to electronically apply for a tax directive allowing the annuity provider to not withhold PAYE on annuities owned by a Trust that is registered as an employer. The tax directive is issued in terms of paragraph 10 read with paragraph 11(a) of the Fourth schedule to the income Tax Act 58 of 1962, as amended.
• The trust will account to SARS for tax withheld from payments to its beneficiaries.

Updated guides:

• IT-AE-33-G01 – Tax Directive Cease to be resident and Expiry of visas – External Guide
• IT-AE-41-G01 – Completion Guide for IRP3(a) and IRP3(s) Form – External Guide
• IT-AE-41-G02 – Guide to Complete the Tax Directive Application Forms – External Guide
• IT-AE-41-G04 – Guide to the Tax Directive functionality on eFiling – External Guide

11 April 2025 – Customs and Excise Act, 1964: Publication details for tariff amendments notices R6108, R6109, and R6110, as published in Government Gazette 52491 of 11 April 2025, are now available.

10 April 2025 – Customs and Excise Act, 1964 The tariffs amendments notices scheduled for publication in the Government Gazette relate to the following amendments:

With effect from 11 April 2025

• 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 286.25c/kg to 377.35c/kg in terms of the existing variable tariff formula (ITAC Minute 14/2024)

With retrospective effect from 1 January 2025

• Part 3F of Schedule No. 1, by an increase of R46 per tonne in the rate of environmental levy on carbon dioxide equivalent from R190 to R236 per tonne to give effect to the Budget proposals announced by the Minister of Finance on 12 March 2025

With retrospective effect from 1 January 2002

• Part 5A of Schedule No. 1, by the substitution of Notes 7(b) in order to provide for the newly inserted items included under item 195.13 in Part 5A of Schedule No. 1 as promulgated in the Taxation Laws Amendment Act, 2025 in Government Gazette No. 51829 on 24 December 2024

Publication details will be made available later

10 April 2025 – Income Tax Act, 1962

• Interpretation Note 20 (Issue 9) – Additional deduction for learnership agreements

10 April 2025 – Income Tax Act, 1962

• Interpretation Note 20 (Issue 8) – Additional deduction for learnership agreements

10 April 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 maintenance is scheduled for:

Friday, 11 April 2025 from 18h00 to 21h00,

Saturday, 12 April 2025 from 18h00 to 00h00.

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

9 April 2025 – Customs and Excise Act, 1964

• JT International Manufacturing South Africa (Pty) Ltd v CSARS (1330/2023) [2025] ZASCA 37 (4 April 2025)

Interpretation: Customs and Excise Act 91 of 1964 – twelve imported consignments of cigarette tobacco entered under rebate code 460.24 not entered into SAD 500 ZRW forms as required by rule 19A.09(c) – whether the Commissioner for the South African Revenue Service has a discretion to exempt non-compliance with the provisions of rule 19A.09(c) in terms of s 75(10)(a) of the Customs and Excise Act.

9 April 2025 – Tax Court Judgments

• SARSTC VAT 22558 (VAT) [2025] ZATC CPT (11 February 2025)
• SARSTC IT 25209 (ADM) [2025] ZATC JHB (3 February 2025)
• SARSTC 2023-22 (ADM) [2024] ZATC JHB (27 December 2024)
• SARSTC IT 45776 (IT) [2024] ZATC JHB (29 November 2024)

Summaries are available on the Tax Court Judgments page

9 April 2025 – The Kariega and Gqeberha mobile tax unit schedules for April to June 2025 are now available.

8 April 2025 – As SARS, we continuously optimise our systems to provide clarity and certainty to taxpayers and traders and make it easy for them to fulfil their tax obligations. These enhancements help to make our digital platforms safer and more secure.

Therefore, as per our previous communication, we plan to implement the enhancements to our Tax Directives system on Friday, 11 April 2025 in line with the IBIR-006 Tax Directives Interface Specification Version 6.803.

The current scope of the enhancements is outlined below.

• Tax-neutral transfers were covered in the previous release. However, some allowable transfers pertaining to unclaimed benefit funds (48) and inactive members with insufficient information (54) were not updated. In this release, we cater for these allowable transfers. As with all transfers made on or after 1 September 2024, these transfers must also include the values in the Vested, Retirement and Savings components, even if the relevant component value is zero. The Recognition of Transfer (ROT) must also be submitted and include the three components.

• A new tax directive reason has been added on the IRP3(a), backdated (antedated) salaries and/or pensions with source code 3623 for reporting.

• Before 1 September 2024, the definition of Retirement Annuity Fund provided that if a member of a retirement annuity fund discontinues their contributions to that retirement annuity fund and their interest in that fund is less than R15 000, the member may access their full interest in that retirement fund before retirement as a retirement fund lump sum withdrawal benefit taxed in accordance with the tax rates applicable to a retirement fund lump sum withdrawal benefit. From 1 September 2024, a member of a Retirement Annuity Fund who discontinues their contributions to that Retirement Annuity Fund may access the full value in the Vested and Retirement components in that fund before retirement, as a retirement fund lump sum withdrawal benefit taxed in accordance with the tax rates applicable to a retirement fund lump sum withdrawal benefit, if the sum of these components are R15 000 or less. It must be noted that this R15 000 limitation remains applicable at fund level and not at policy level.

• On 1 March 2022, Emigration Withdrawal was replaced by Cessation of South African Residence. The provisions in the definitions of the various retirement fund types that allowed members to access their full interest in their preservation funds or retirement annuity funds on termination of membership as a result of emigration during a transitional period were deleted with effect from 1 September 2024. The system will no longer accept any tax directive applications submitted on or after 1 September 2024 for the reason “Emigration Withdrawal”.

• The RST01 — Directive Application by Non-Resident for Relief of SA Tax for Pension and Annuities and the IRP3(a) — Application for tax Directives: Gratuities and Savings Component Withdrawals can be accessed on eFiling and submitted with supporting documents for processing. The manual submission channel for these application forms will be replaced by eFiling with effect from 11 April 2025.

• RST02 — Request by Non-Resident for a Refund of South African Tax for Pension and Annuities in terms of a Double Taxation Agreement will be discontinued. On submission of a tax return during assessment a possible refund might become payable.

• The transfer provisions under paragraphs 2(1)(c) and 6A of the Second Schedule will be extended to include Retirement Annuity Funds. This means that a member of a Retirement Annuity Fund, who has attained normal retirement age, as per the rules of that fund but has not elected to retire, can transfer their retirement interest to another Retirement Annuity Fund on a tax neutral basis using paragraph 2(1)(c) as the transfer reason with effect from 1 March 2025.

Please do not submit tax directives files on the current form after 16:00 on 11 April 2025. We will queue and process such files after we have upgraded the Tax Directives system.

SARS values your support and collaboration.

8 April 2025 – In the April 2025 issue we look at the Annual Employer Declarations (EMP501) period that runs from 1 April to 31 May 2025.

8 April 2025 – Dear Stakeholder, kindly note that our SARSQA Connect Direct Public Certificate has changed. For those who have not updated it yet, please urgently contact the 3rd Party Data Support ([email protected]) to get the latest SARSQA Connect Direct Public Certificate to update it on your side.

7 April 2025 – As announced in the Budget Speech by the Minister of Finance, the following Transfer Duty rates are applicable to properties acquired on or after 1 April 2025 and apply to all persons, including natural and non-natural persons (including Companies, Close Corporations (CC) and Trusts):

For more information, see the Transfer Duty webpage and the updated guide.

• TD-AE-02-G02 – Guide for Transfer Duty via eFiling – External Guide

7 April 2025 – The 2025/2026 SARS e-Log book is now available.

For more information, see the Travel e-log book webpage.