What’s New at SARS

PAYE Employer Reconciliation BRS for the 2026 tax year

26 March 2025 – The PAYE Employer Reconciliation BRS v24 0 0 has been published. The following changes are applicable from 1 March 2025:

  • New source codes: 3623/3723, 4042, 4588, 4589
  • Amended description: 3020, 3907
  • Amended validations: 3230, 3232

Legal Counsel – Preparation of Legislation – Draft Documents for Public Comment

25 March 2025 – Income Tax Act, 1962

 

Due date for comment: 23 May 2025

Legal Counsel – Interpretation and Rulings – Interpretation Notes 41–60

25 March 2025 – Income Tax Act, 1962: Interpretation Notes

  • Interpretation Note 59 (Issue 3) – Tax treatment of the receipt or accrual of government grants
  • Interpretation Note 45 (Issue 4) – Deduction of security expenditure

Legal Counsel Archive – Interpretation Notes Archive

25 March 2025 – Income Tax Act, 1962: Interpretation Notes Archive

  • Interpretation Note 59 (Issue 2) – Tax treatment of the receipt or accrual of government grants
  • Interpretation Note 45 (Issue 3) – Deduction of security expenditure

Legal Counsel Publications – Find a Guide – Customs and Excise

25 March 2025 – Customs and Excise Act, 1964: Guides

  • Rebate Stores
  • Customs and Excise Storage Warehouses (OS)
  • Special Customs and Excise Storage Warehouses (SOS)

Customs and Excise Registration – Documentary Requirements

25 March 2025 – The documentary requirements annexure did not provide an alternative for the Customs and Excise clients who are unable to provide mandatory supporting documentation. The definitions and acronym table has been updated to clarify the relevant alternative as well as other various amendments. 

SC-CF-19-A01 – Documentary Requirements – External Annexure

Customs – Registration, Licensing and Accreditation

25 March 2025 – The Customs & Excise Facilities Code List has been updated because Bidfreight Port Operations (PTY) LTD has relocated from Durban to Port Elizabeth harbour.

Tax Practitioner guide on use of the SARS MobiApp

24 March 2025 – The SARS MobiApp is one of the digital platforms that enables tax practitioners to access profile information, monitor compliance with tax obligations, and transact on behalf of their clients easily and effortlessly. To support tax practitioners in managing their clients’ tax matters, a comprehensive guide on using SARS MobiApp has been developed.

 

Customs Weekly List of Unentered Goods now available

24 March 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.

Customs – Intention of the SARS Commissioner to formally withdraw all concessions

20 March 2025 – The Commissioner of SARS is aware that certain clients and traders are continuing to operate their businesses and, specifically, certain requirements as outlined in the Customs and Excise Act, 1964 (the Act), under the auspices of certain concessions (deviations, agreements, or special allowances) that have been granted in the past by Customs and Excise Offices.

These practices have been reviewed in the past and it is now the intention of the SARS Commissioner to formally withdraw all concessions on which certain clients are relying on.

For more information, see the letter to Trade.

Tax Directives software: Trade testing dates

19 March 2025 – To facilitate the upcoming system changes, SARS will be making enhancements to the Tax Directives process. The changes are detailed in IBIR-006 Tax Directives Interface Specification Version 6.802. Trade testing will commence on 24 March 2025 and run till 7 April 2025.

Please follow these steps to submit test files:

Step 1: Before testing can commence, you will need to email 10 taxpayer reference numbers to [email protected] to ensure the numbers are active. In the email subject line, use “Tax reference numbers for Trade Testing”. A maximum of 10 taxpayer reference numbers will be allowed.

Step 2: You will be notified via the same email address to confirm when testing may commence.

For trade testing queries, please email [email protected].

Invoice details on customs declarations

19 March 2025 – Following a period of engagement, development, and testing with industry and technical service providers, SARS requests that trade now include invoice data in all electronic customs declarations submitted to SARS.

As of 1 April 2025, customs declarations not containing invoice data will have an increased probability of being selected for documentary inspection or audit, and of such declarants being requested to upload invoices as supporting documentation.

See the letter to Trade.

Legal Counsel Publications – Find a Guide – Capital Gains Tax

18 March 2025 – Capital Gains Tax Guides

  • ABC of Capital Gains Tax for Individuals (Issue 13)
  • ABC of Capital Gains Tax for Companies (Issue 11)

Legal Counsel Publications – Find a Guide – Customs and Excise

18 March 2025 – Customs and Excise Act, 1964

Appointment of a Corporate Entity as a trustee of a Trust and/or executor in a Deceased Estate

18 March 2025 – The Public Officers and Representatives policy has been updated to allow the nominated new representative still to be authorised by the MoHC to carry out tax administrative duties on behalf of the Corporate Entity either as trustee or executor, pending the formal amendment of the LoA or LoE. The following conditions must be met:

  1. Submission of the Power of Attorney (POA), Signed Board Resolution and Affidavit clearly indicating that the succeeding representative will represent the Corporate Entity as trustee or executor.
  2. An undertaking that the amended LoA or LoE will be submitted to SARS on receipt thereof from the MoHC.

Customs Scam Alert

18 March 2025 – SARS has received reports about individuals fraudulently posing as SARS Customs officials, requesting payments to release detained parcels. This is a scam. The public is advised to refrain from engaging with these calls, and not to divulge any personal information, codes, or make any payments. Kindly report any suspected scams to the police and SARS immediately.

Learn more about the latest scams on the Scams and Phishing webpage and report new scams to [email protected].

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