What’s New at SARS

19 November 2025 – SARS reminds employers to start preparing for the 2026 Employer Filing Season. From February 2026, employers will not be able to submit PAYE reconciliations without valid Income Tax Reference Numbers for employees who are required to register in terms of section 67 of the Income Tax Act.

Previously, missing numbers triggered warnings in e@syFile™, allowing time for corrections. This grace period ends with the 2026 season. Reconciliations without valid Income Tax Numbers will be rejected and non-compliance will result in administrative penalties.

How employers can register employees:

• e@syFile™ Employer – Individual registration (ITREG) or bulk registration (BundleReg)
• eFiling – Up to 200 employees per batch
• TRN Enquiry Services – Check or request Income Tax Numbers via eFiling
• Manual registration – At a SARS branch (appointment required)

How employees can register themselves:

• SARS eFiling – Online self-registration
• SOQS – SARS Online Query System
• WhatsApp – Save 0800 11 7277 and send “Hi”
• USSD – Dial 1347277#

Start preparing now to avoid last-minute challenges and penalties.

18 November 2025 – In this latest issue we help you understand your tax responsibilities, share tips on how to stay tax compliant and discuss the prescribed deadline for filing an objection.

18 November 2025 – Publication of the following Binding Private Rulings:

• Binding Private Ruling 420 – Application of section 8EA(3)
• Binding Private Ruling 419 – Corporate restructuring – Amalgamation transaction
• Binding Private Ruling 418 – Asset-for-share transfer involving close corporation

18 November 2025 – Income Tax Act, 1962

• Draft Interpretation Note – The meaning of “deemed to be one and the same person” for determining the entitlement to the wear-and-tear allowance under an amalgamation transaction

Due date for comment: 9 January 2026

18 November 2025 – The e@syFile™ Employer version 8.0.1_329 release notes specify the following changes:

• • Correction made to Source Code 3696 (Non-Taxable Income) to align with SARS PAYE BRS.
  • Correction made to the ETV report available on the backend, but it is not available to download.
  • Correction made to ETI Utilised to allow maximum allowable amounts.
  • Correction made to EMP501 Submission Comparison Result screen to compare liability values for PAYE, SDL, UIF, ETI Calculated and ETI Utilised from March to February.

See more detail in the release notes.

18 November 2025 – As part of the modernisation efforts, SARS is automating the AfCFTA agreement for SARS Customs & Excise clients. SARS published the necessary legal instruments on 26 January 2024, and trade began on 31 January 2024 for the approved published tariff offers to and from countries such as Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, and Tunisia. Trading with SADC countries takes place under the SADC Trade Protocol. Traders must be registered with SARS as exporters or producers before being allowed to trade under AfCFTA, and this registration process previously required manual submission.

From 1 November 2025, traders can submit applications for the following client types under the AfCFTA agreement through the RLA system:

• Exporter in terms of AfCFTA
• Approved Exporter in terms of AfCFTA
• Producer in terms of AfCFTA

For more information, see the letter to Trade and the presentation.

17 November 2025 – Celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week 2025 from 17 – 23 November! This year, under the theme Together We Build, SARS honours South Africa’s small, medium, and micro enterprises (SMMEs) and their vital role in driving innovation, economic growth, and job creation. Join us in recognising the inspiring entrepreneurs who are building a brighter future for our communities.

Throughout the week, we will highlight the importance of tax compliance as the foundation for sustainable businesses and thriving communities.

See this week’s schedule here. 

17 November 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.

17 November 2025 – Income Tax Act, 1962

• Binding Private Ruling 417 – Distribution of funds in the furtherance of objectives

17 November 2025 – SARS invites media representatives to attend the opening ceremony of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) 18^th Forum on Tax Administration (FTA) Plenary. This annual event brings together over 50 tax commissioners and senior officials from around the world. It serves as a platform for collaboration, sharing of best practices, and addressing global challenges in tax administration. The Forum also strengthens international cooperation in areas such as tax transparency, compliance, and enforcement.

All accredited media representatives are invited to attend.

Date: 18 November 2025

Time:  09:00

Venue: No. 4 Energy Lane, Bridgeways Precinct Century City, 7441, Cape Town

Speakers: Mr Bob Hamilton, Chair, Forum on Tax Administration; Ms. Manal Corwin, Director, Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, OECD; Mr. Edward Kieswetter, Commissioner, South African Revenue Service.

Journalists interested in attending the opening ceremony are requested to confirm their attendance by emailing [email protected] no later than close of business on 17 November 2025, as space is limited.

The opening session will be open to the public via a livestream: https://www.youtube.com/live/HyY6hR_uDn0.

14 November 2025 – The Prohibited and Restricted Imports and Exports list has been updated.

• • Tariff headings 7102; 7104 and 7105, for both Imports and Exports were amended.

14 November 2025 – Customs and Excise Act, 1964: Draft amendments to rules, and schedule:

• Draft amendments to rules under sections 75 and 120 – Diesel refund registrations
  • Form RAVDSL – Registration, Amendments and Verification Diesel Refunds
• Draft amendments to Part 3 of Schedule No. 6

Due date for comment: 5 December 2025

14 November 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, 14 November 2025 from 18h00 to 22h00.

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

13 November 2025 – Customs and Excise Act, 1964

• Draft amendments to rules and forms under sections 64D and 120 – Licensing of remover of goods in bond

Due date for comment: 27 November 2025

13 November 2025 – Income Tax Act, 1962

• Draft Interpretation Note – Income tax exemption: Registered political party

Due date for comment: 2 January 2026

13 November 2025 – Income Tax Act, 1962, and Value-Added Tax Act, 1991

• Binding Private Ruling 416 – Transfer of reinsurance business from a resident company to a local branch of a foreign company

12 November 2025 – The Prohibited and Restricted Imports and Exports list has been updated.

• • Tariff heading 3102.90 needs to be detained for Border Management Authority (BMA).

12 November 2025 – National Legislation: The Minister of Finance introduced the following bills in the National Assembly:

• Taxation Laws Amendment Bill [B30—2025]
• Tax Administration Laws Amendment Bill [B29—2025]

12 November 2025 — The South African Revenue Service (SARS) welcomes the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) tabled in Parliament today by the Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana. The Minister revised the 2025 Budget net tax-revenue estimate from R1 985.6 billion to R2 005.3 billion.

Commissioner Edward Kieswetter expressed SARS support of the Minister’s statement, which charts a clear and pragmatic roadmap for South Africa’s fiscal sustainability. “The MTBPS sets out bold measures to strengthen the country’s economic resilience. SARS is committed to supporting these objectives by focusing on robust revenue collection, improved compliance and trade facilitation through consistent effort, operational excellence, and innovation,” said Kieswetter.

By 30 September 2025, SARS had collected a net revenue of R924.7 billion, drawn from gross collections of R1 157.6 billion and refund payments of R232.9 billion. This marks year-on-year growth of R78.6 billion and an overall surplus of R18 billion against the printed estimates, indicating a promising trajectory for the second half of the financial year. Nearly 50% of the better than estimated performance came from compliance efforts.

SARS’ compliance programme continues to deliver results. In the same period, SARS secured R131.6 billion from compliance activities, up from R122.6 billion in the previous year. Debt collections reached R47.1 billion, an increase of R3.3 billion (7.5%), reinforcing SARS’ contribution to the national fiscus.

Kieswetter credits SARS’ achievement to the effort of its employees and compliant taxpayers. “Behind these numbers are the dedicated SARS employees who perform millions of little things daily, and many compliant taxpayers whose contribution make this success possible. Their commitment is to help to strengthen South Africa’s fiscal outlook and build momentum for the future. These results underscore SARS’ effectiveness in revenue collection and is positive for the country’s fiscal outlook,” he adds.

Building on this momentum, revenue collection has demonstrated resilience across major tax categories. Collections from Corporate Income Tax (CIT), PAYE, Dividends Tax, Domestic VAT, General Fuel Levy (Imported), as well as lower-than-estimated VAT-refund payments, consistently outperformed expectations, reinforcing SARS’ role in sustaining fiscal stability.

• Corporate Income Tax (CIT): Year-to-date CIT Provisional Tax payments amounted to R164.5 billion, growing by R14.2 billion (9.5%) and exceeding the printed estimates by R4.7 billion (3.0%). Collections were boosted by SARS invoking Paragraph 19(3) that yielded an additional R10.0 billion.  The main contributors being companies in the Mining and Finance sectors. The Mining sector continues to encounter significant challenges because of softening commodity prices for palladium, iron ore, and coal. These price fluctuations affect the profitability of companies, resulting in downward pressure on CIT provisional payments.
• PAYE collections of R371.0 billion recorded growth of R30.9 billion (9.1%) against the prior year and exceeded the printed estimate by R3.2 billion (0.9%). The year-on-year growth was driven mainly by payments from employers in the Finance and Community sectors. Tax proposals announced at Budget 2025 included no inflationary adjustments to PIT tax brackets and rebates; measures expected to yield R16.7 billion for the full year. In the first half of the year, PAYE collections from Two-Pot withdrawals were based on a total gross withdrawal of R18.2 billion and taxable amounts valued at R5.2 billion.
• Dividend tax collections amounted to R22.3 billion, growing by R5.3 billion (31.0%) against the prior year and recording a surplus of R4.6 billion (25.7%) against the printed estimates. This included a significant once-off payment of R1.4 billion, whilst the main drivers of this growth were the Finance, Manufacturing, and Wholesale & Retail sectors.
• Domestic VAT collections totaled R292.7 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of R21.1 billion (7.8%). This was driven mainly by growth in the Finance, Wholesale & Retail, and Manufacturing sectors, and partially offset by the Transport sector. Year-to-date Domestic VAT collections exceeded the printed estimates by R5.2 billion (1.8%).
• Import VAT significantly underperformed by R3.7 billion due to a lower growth in the value of imports 1.2%, which were expected to grow by 5.4% over the full year.
• Lower than expected VAT refund payments, totaled R183.9 billion, or a marginal increase of R0.2 billion (0.1%) from the prior year. This positive outcome is the result of the continued focus on SARS efforts to curb impermissible and fraudulent refund claims. Refund risk management contributed most significantly to the solid improvement in overall Net VAT revenue.
• General Fuel Levy collections of R44.7 billion were R2.1 billion (5.0%) higher than in the prior year and exceeded the printed estimates by R2.3 billion (5.3%). Fuel declarations for April to September 2025 recorded a total year-on-year net growth of 2.1% (241.9 million litres) in volume. Declarations from importers increased by 133.1% (3 605.3 million litres) and were partially offset by declarations from local manufacturers, which contracted year-on-year by 39.0% (3 363.4 million litres).

The surpluses on the above tax products were partially offset by lower-than-expected collections from PIT Provisional taxes, PIT Assessments, and Customs taxes; as well as higher-than-estimated PIT refund payments:

• The 2025/26 printed estimate for PIT Provisional Tax is R51.5 billion, with a full-year targeted growth rate of 19.1% against the prior year. Year-to-date collections of R17.4 billion recorded growth of R1.5 billion (9.4%) against the prior year and fell short of the printed estimates by R1.5 billion (8.2%).
• PIT assessment tax collections of R9.9 billion recorded growth of R0.4 billion (3.8%) against the prior year and fell short by R1.1 billion (9.7%). The growth was driven mainly by the Community sector and partially offset by a contraction in the Mining sector.
• The 2025/26 full year printed estimates for Customs trade taxes are R360.6 billion, requiring a year-on-year growth rate of 5.5%. By 30 September 2025, collections had yielded R156.7 billion, representing a lower-than-expected growth of R5.0 billion (3.3%), primarily driven by Import VAT of R2.7 billion (2.3%) and Customs Duties of R2.3 billion (7.2%). The year-to-date collections fell short of the printed estimates by R3.4 billion (-2.1%), primarily due to a deficit in Import VAT, and were partially offset by a surplus in Customs Duties debt collections.
• PIT Refunds of R32.2 billion recorded growth of R4.5 billion (16.2%) against the prior year and exceeded the printed estimates by R1.4 billion (4.4%).
• 7.3 million PIT returns were received (compared to 6.6 million at the same time in the prior year). Of these, 5.7 million returns were auto-assessed compared to 4.8 million for the previous year. 4.6 million returns resulted in credit assessments totaling R31.2 billion, matching the prior year’s volume but reflecting a R1.9 billion increase in value.

Commissioner Kieswetter reaffirmed SARS’ commitment to building a smart, modern institution anchored in integrity and trust. “Our role extends beyond revenue collection; we advance national fiscal goals in the face of persistent challenges such as debt, unemployment, and inequality. With government depending on tax revenues for around 90% of expenditures, strong domestic resource mobilisation is essential to safeguard fiscal integrity and reduce reliance on external funding”.

To accelerate these gains at Budget 2025, Minister Godongwana allocated an additional R7.5 billion to SARS over the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (2025/2026; 2026/2027; 2027/2028).

SARS is pioneering Tax Administration 3.0, a modernisation strategy focused on developing a smart, digitally integrated platform powered by advanced data science. This approach encompasses eight generational projects:

• Upskilling employees to remain relevant in a future world of work in an era of artificial intelligence.
• Establishing a unique digital identity system to improve the integrity and ease of authentication.
• Creating a comprehensive taxpayer account portal enabling employees to better serve taxpayers
• Modernising a case management platform that is more intelligent, embedded in data science and artificial intelligence.
• Embedding an entity-based compliance model into the platform to drive a shift from a reactive, declaration-based risk profiling towards a real time proactive risk profiling.
• Building an instant payment system (in partnership with the South African Reserve Bank) to increase payment integrity through greater financial inclusion and reducing cash utilisation.
• Modernising the end-to-end administration of VAT
• Modernising the physical and technological customs and excise administration infrastructure.

The illicit economy has proliferated in South Africa. In 1994, the illicit economy was estimated to account for approximately 4% of the country’s GDP. This figure is now reported by various studies, to have grown to a staggering figure of between 10% – 15% of GDP in 2024. This is an unacceptably high level in our national economy and must be met with swift and determined efforts to reverse its impact. The illicit activities in tobacco and cigarettes, alcohol, fuel and fuel adulteration, counterfeiting, illegal mining, and the smuggling of gold and other minerals are a stark expression of this phenomenon.

SARS will continue to work to eliminate valuation fraud and identify unexplained wealth while integrating the informal economy into the broader tax framework. The organisation remains committed to striking a balance between service excellence, protection of taxpayer rights and responsible enforcement where necessary. The success of our country depends on our efforts to decisively deal with the scourge of the illicit economy. Let it be said that we have and will continue to incessantly fight against this scourge that weighs down our economy.

Commissioner Kieswetter extended his sincere gratitude to SARS’ 14 000 employees for their unwavering commitment and professionalism. He said that “the work we do as SARS has a transformative impact on the most vulnerable in our society and fulfils our commitment to the higher purpose we serve”. He also thanked the taxpayers, and other stakeholders, for their contribution to helping our country meet its commitment to all its citizens.

For further information, please contact SARS at [email protected]

12 November 2025 – Tax Administration Act, 2011

• CSARS v Africa Cash and Carry (Crown Mines) (Pty) Ltd and Another (42076/2022) [2025] ZAGPPHC (4 November 2025)
• CSARS v Sasfin Bank Limited (134505/2023) [2025] ZAGPPHC (3 November 2025)

Summaries are available on the High Court Judgments page