What’s New at SARS

25 March 2024 – Customs and Excise Act, 1964

• Quick Reference Table to Amendments, Substitutions, and Cancellation of Bills of Entry

25 March 2024 – The Mobile Tax Unit schedule for April to June 2024 is now available.

22 March 2024 – Tax workshop schedule for Limpopo province during April has been published.

20 March 2024 – Customs and Excise Act, 1964

• An Overview of Manufacturing Rebate and Drawback Procedures

19 March 2024 – As part of the third-party data submission process, third-party entities are issued annually upon request, a SARS security certificate which forms part of their enrolment and activation process. The SARS security certificate allows SARS to validate and process high-volume data files received from third-party entities during their data file submissions via Connect: Direct™ technology (CD) and Secure Web: https (SFG).

However, since SARS no longer supports browsers that were identified as posing security and risk-related issues, this made it difficult for many third-party entities to request and renew their security certificates. Additionally, this was disadvantageous to the third-party data submission process as new entities could not easily enrol and renew expired certificates.

To address this, a solution was developed to enable third-party entities to enrol and activate their preferred channels of submission via eFiling. Following the completion of the enrolment and activation, a security certificate that contains information about the certificate’s owner along with public and private keys will be issued, and only then will third-party entities be allowed to send their data files to SARS via CD and SFG.

Any queries relating to the third-party data submission process should be referred to the third-party data unit via the following email address: [email protected].

The following guides relating to third-party data submission has been updated and are available on the SARS website:

• GEN-ENR-01-G10 – Manage Submission of Third-Party Data – External Guide
• GEN-ENR-01-G01 – Guide for the Submission of Third-Party Data using the Connect Direct channel – External Guide
• GEN-ENR-01-G02 – Guide for the Submission of Third-Party Data using the HTTPS channel – External Guide

18 March 2024 – Customs and Excise Act, 1964

• Customs Outward Processing Procedure

18 March 2024 – Value-Added Tax Act, 1991: Publication of  VAT Rulings 006, 007, and 008, relating to Apportionment.

18 March 2024 – To facilitate the upcoming two-pot retirement system changes, SARS will be making enhancements to the Tax Directives process. The changes are detailed in IBIR-006 Tax Directives interim Interface Specification Version 6.701. Once the law has been promulgated, an updated version of the Interface Specification will be made available. SARS will also communicate trade testing dates in due course.

18 March 2024 – In keeping up with the continuous SARS Online Query System (SOQS) enhancements, the SOQS External Guide has been updated as follows: 

• The ‘Submit supporting documents’ and ‘Report new estate case’ queries have been updated in line with the latest system enhancements.
• The following new queries have been included in the guide:
  • Request for Auto Assessment status: This enables the taxpayers to query whether they are part of the SARS Auto Assessment population or not.
  • Submit an LBI query: This enables the taxpayers registered at the Large Business and International (LBI) or High Net Worth (HNW) to direct their queries to LBI or HNW.

GEN-GEN-51-G01 – SARS Online Query System – External Guide

18 March 2024 – The SARS Third Party Data Annual Submissions process for the period 1 March 2023 – 29 February 2024 opens on 1 April 2024 and will close on 31 May 2024.

For more information, see the Third Party Data Submission Platform webpage.

15 March 2024 – Customs Weekly List of Unentered Goods

15 March 2024 – Customs and Excise Act, 1964: Publication details for tariff amendment notices R4511, R4512, R4513, and R4514, as published in Government Gazette 50296 on 15 March 2024, are now available.

14 March 2024 – Customs and Excise Act, 1964: The tariff amendments notices, scheduled for publication in the Government Gazette, relate to the amendments to –

• Part 3 of Schedule No. 2, by the substitution of safeguard items 260.03/7318.15.41/01.08; 260.03/7318.15.42/01.08 and 260.03/7318.16.30/01.08 to include imports originating in or imported from the Republic of the Philippines to be subject to safeguard duties with a rate of 48,04% on threaded fasteners of iron or steel (excluding those of stainless steel and those identifiable for aircraft) – Minute 11/2023 (with effect from 15 March 2024 up to and including 23 July 2024);
• Part 3 of Schedule No. 2, by the substitution of safeguard items 260.03/7318.15.41/01.08; 260.03/7318.15.42/01.08 and 260.03/7318.16.30/01.08 to include imports originating in or imported from the Republic of the Philippines to be subject to the safeguard duties of a rate of 46,04% on threaded fasteners of iron or steel (excluding those of stainless steel and those identifiable for aircraft) – Minute 11/2023 (with effect from 24 July 2024 up to and including 23 July 2025);
• Part 3 of Schedule No. 2, by the substitution of safeguard items 260.03/7318.15.41/01.08; 260.03/7318.15.42/01.08 and 260.03/7318.16.30/01.08 to include imports originating in or imported from the Republic of the Philippines to be subject to the safeguard duties of a rate of 44,04% on threaded fasteners of iron or steel (excluding those of stainless steel and those identifiable for aircraft) – Minute 11/2023 (with effect from 24 July 2025 up to and including 23 July 2026); and
• 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 free of duty to 140.91c/kg in terms of the existing variable tariff formula – ITAC Minute 13/2023 (15 March 2024).

Publication details will be made available later

11 March 2024 – The facility codes used in Box 30 on the Customs Clearance Declaration (CCD) have been updated to include the details of the new approved container depot – Trans Modal Logistics South Africa in Durban.

• SC-CF-19-A02 – Facility Code List – External Annexure

8 March 2024 – Excise Duty/Levy payment and submission dates for 2024/2025 have been published.

8 March 2024 – Income Tax Act, 1962

• Guide on the Solar Energy Tax Credit Provided under Section 6C

7 March 2024 – PAYE Employer Reconciliation BRS for the 2025 tax year was published.

The changes include:

• New source code (3926) for the Withdrawal from a Retirement Fund from the Savings Component/Pot
• Amendment of descriptions and/or validation rules for:
  • Unclaimed benefits (source code 3909)
  • Certificate Number (source code 3010)
  • Directive Number (source code 3230)
  • Directive Income Source Code (source code 3232)
  • Transfer of Unclaimed Benefits (source code 3923)
  • NED Directors / Audit Committee Member Fees (source code 3620/3670)

The submission dates:

• • Interim: 16 September – 31 October 2024
  • Annual: 1 April – 31 May 2025

6 March 2024 – Tax Administration Act, 2011

• Bechan and Another v SARS Customs Investigations Unit and Others (1196/2022) [2024] ZASCA 20 (05 March 2024)

Search and seizure – Tax Administration Act 28 of 2011 (the TAA) – interpretation – sections 59(1) and 60(1) – execution of a warrant against third parties on premises identified in the warrant – section 61(3)(a) of TAA – permits search of anything on the premises identified in the warrant including motor vehicle parked on the premises on suspicion that it contains material relevant to the taxpayer.

6 March 2024 – High Court Judgments

• BP Southern Africa (Pty) Ltd v CSARS (2021/49805) [2024] ZAGPPHC 160 (1 March 2024)
• CSARS v J Company (14944/19) [2024] ZAWCHC 63 (29 February 2024)
• Finequest Enterprise (Pty) Limited v CSARS (008272/22) [2024] ZAGPPHC 170 (26 February 2024)
• Dorking Africa (Pty) Ltd v CSARS (A141/2022) [2024] ZAGPPHC 30 (25 January 2024)

Summaries are available on the High Court judgments page

6 March 2024 – Income Tax Act, 1962, and Tax Administration Act, 2011

• SARSTC 14302 (IT) [2024] ZATC JHB (14 February 2024)

Transfer pricing – arm’s length price adjustment: Whether appellant may appeal against an increased assessment imposed on it by the respondent.