What’s New at SARS

20 June 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, 20 June 2025 from 18h00 to 22h00.

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

19 June 2025 – Customs and Excise Act, 1964: The correction notice, scheduled for publication in the Government Gazette, relates to the correction of the English version of Note 10 in Chapter 84 in Notice No. R. 1089 of Government Gazette No. 45378 published on 22 October 2021, by referring to “84.85” instead of “85.85” where it occurs in the last line of that Note.

Publication details will be made available later

17 June 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 June 2025 – The June Issue of the Monthly Tax Digest is now available.  In this issue we focus on the 2025 Filing Season for individuals.

14 June 2025 — The South African Revenue Service (SARS) continues to discharge its mandate to collect all revenue due to the fiscus, facilitate legitimate trade, and ensure compliance. This takes place in a difficult economic and operational environment characterised by multiple challenges, including the illicit economy. SARS is working with other law enforcement agencies to combat the scourge of the illicit economy.

The illicit economy is a global phenomenon that threatens South Africa’s society, economy, and national security. Tax evasion, smuggling, illegal transactions, illicit manufacturing, and fraud undermine the rule of law, erode public trust, distort markets, deprive governments of revenue, and enable corruption and organised crime. The pervasiveness of these illicit activities in our country demands that all enforcement agencies work jointly to curb their harmful practices. The illicit economy is complex and requires a whole-of-government response among public entities, the private sector, civil society, and international partners.

Over the past decade, countries along the Maputo Corridor (South Africa, Swaziland, and Mozambique) have become primary targets of the illicit fuel trade, which is driven by organised criminal networks that smuggle and illegally adulterate fuel. SARS has established that some importers declare fuel amounting to 40 000 litres or less, whereas investigation reveals that up to 60 000 litres of fuel are actually imported. This is called under-declaration, and documents are falsified to perpetuate this fraudulent activity. SARS has also detected a national trend where many of the fuel-storage and distribution depots are involved in the adulteration of all fuel products, especially through illegal mixing of diesel with paraffin. Fuel adulteration costs the fiscus approximately R3.6 billion per year according to statistics by the International Trade Administration Commission.

Faced with such carefully planned criminality, government agencies are working together more closely to detect, prevent, and combat fuel adulteration and enforce the Customs and Excise Act. In the past four months, the National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure (NATJOINTS) has carried out several interventions.

The intelligence-driven joint-enforcement interventions included search-and-seizure operations targeting certain fuel-storage facilities and depots as well as random sampling of tanker transport to test the fuel viscosity and composition. In some cases, adulterated diesel analysed by in these investigations had up to 68% paraffin content.

A joint-intelligence team composed of SARS and SAPS officials identified 23 targets across Gauteng, Mpumalanga, and KwaZulu-Natal. This team detained:

1. 953 515 litres of contaminated diesel fuel.
2. Six fuel depots that were in contravention of Sec. 37 of the Customs and Excise Act 91 of 1964 as amended.
3. Assets and contaminated fuel to the value of R367 274 330, leading to further investigation, and criminal and civil liabilities.
4. Two so-called fuel “washrooms”, of which one is a rare mobile “washroom” fitted on a transport truck, used to remove paraffin markers.

5. Twelve fuel-transport trucks which were identified after suspected false declaration on importation of an average of 15 000 litres of fuel per tanker.

Moreover, 13 criminal cases were registered with SAPS, supported by SARS’s trade investigators for customs and excise contraventions and fraud.

SARS appreciates the continued operational support received from:

• NATJOINTS
• South African Police Service: Crime Intelligence, Public Order Policing, Digital Forensics, and Detective Services
• State Security Agency
• South African National Defence Force
• Municipal Emergency Services: Fire Department and Municipal Police
• Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment
• Department of Mineral Resources and Energy
• National Prosecuting Authority
• Department of Home Affairs

Edward Kieswetter, SARS Commissioner, expressed his thanks to the SARS and SAPS teams and other Government departments for their untiring effort to detect, combat, and prevent the scourge of the illicit economy. He said that “the criminal syndicates engaged in these brazen acts have become emboldened to act callously with no restraint in pursuit of their rapacious and criminal gains”. Commissioner Kieswetter stressed that state agencies will coordinate closely and work within the law to confront illicit trade. “These syndicates can only underestimate our resolve to eradicate this criminality at their peril. These acts threaten the very foundation of our society. Our message is clear: we will spare no efforts to crush them”.

For further information, please contact [email protected].

13 June 2025 – The facility codes used in Box 30 on the Customs Clearance Declaration (CCD) have been updated to include details of the newly approved De-grouping Facilities:

• FTL Freight and Transit (South Africa) Pty Ltd with code CF, and
• RT Clearing and Forwarding with code CE.

Both are based at O.R. Tambo International Airport.

SC-CF-19-A02 – Facilities Code List – External Annexure

13 June 2025 – Income Tax Act, 1962

• Guide on the Tax Treatment of the Net-billing Tariff System for Excess Power Generated

12 June 2025 – Tax Administration Act, 2011, and Superior Courts Act, 2013

• CSARS v Adamjee and Others (2024/121210) [2025] ZAGPPHC (30 May 2025)

Tax Administration Act 28 of 2011 (TAA) – sections 1, 6(3)(c), 59 and 60 of the TAA – Rule 6(12)(c) of the Uniform Rules of Court – section 16(2)(a)(i) of the Superior Courts Act 10 of 2013 – ex parte application – preservation order – curator bonis – senior SARS official – mootness doctrine – SARS search and seizure – authority to institute proceedings – challenge to SARS powers – settlement agreement in tax litigation – judicial oversight in tax enforcement.

12 June 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, the SARS AI Assistant will be undergoing maintenance scheduled for: Thursday, 12 June 2025 from 19:00 to 19:45.

During this time, you may experience intermittent interruptions accessing AI Assistant from our SARS Website and SARS MobiApp.

11 June 2025 – Tax Administration Act, 2011

• Draft Notice – Incidences of non-compliance by a person in terms of section 210(2) of the Tax Administration Act, 2011 (Act No. 28 of 2011), that are subject to a fixed amount penalty in accordance with sections 210(1) and 211 of the Act

Due date for comment: 27 June 2025

11 June 2025 – Guides

• Guide to Advance Tax Rulings (Issue 2)
• Quick Reference Guide – ATR System

10 June 2025 – SARS invites you to tender for the goods and/or services as detailed in the tender documents. The conditions contained in the SARS Supply Chain Management Policy and the Regulatory Framework which governs tenders at SARS are applicable to the RFP07/2025 tender process.

10 June 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.

10 June 2025 –  The latest VAT Connect Issue 19 is now available.  In this issue we have a look at recent amendments, the retraction of the increase in the VAT rate, changes to the VAT refund administrator and new publications.

10 June 2025 – The KwaZulu-Natal mobile tax unit schedule for July 2025 is now available.

10 June 2025 – SARS has been migrating all Customs and Excise traders to the new Registration, Licensing, and Accreditation (RLA) system since 2022.

To avoid suspension of customs codes, all traders must update their customs code and entity details immediately.

3 Easy Steps to Comply:
1️. Update your RLA profile.
2️. Merge tax and customs profiles on Legal Entity Registration.
3️. Complete onboarding on eFiling.

• Download the full onboarding guide here
• Watch: RLA System on SARS eFiling
• WATCH: How to access the RLA Portal on eFiling: Watch our How to access Customs Registration, Licensing and Accreditation on SARS eFiling

For queries, contact [email protected]

Stay compliant. Keep trading.

Letter to traders: Update your Customs Profile to Avoid Suspension

10 June 2025 – The Mpumalanga mobile tax unit schedules for July to September 2025 are now available.

9 June 2025 – In this edition, we zoom into another incentive for SMMEs: the special economic zone (SEZ). SEZs seek to boost economic development through tax initiatives. They are a tool to attract foreign investment and build export capacity. Qualifying businesses stand to enjoy tax benefits when they operate in an SEZ. This newsletter explores the key tax incentives associated with SEZs and what they mean for businesses and economies.

9 June 2025 – Effective 31 May 2025, SARS will no longer print or post system-generated letters. All correspondence will now be delivered electronically to your eFiling profile and other digital channels.

Eliminating physical mail distribution allows SARS to improve operational efficiency, reduce reliance on third-party vendors, deliver correspondence faster and more reliably, and become more environmentally sustainable.

If you don’t have an eFiling profile yet, click here to register.