What’s New at SARS

30 May 2025 – Customs and Excise Act, 1964: Publication details for tariffs amendments notices R6233, and R6234, as published in Government Gazette 52750 of 30 May 2025, are now available.

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

30 May 2025 up to and including 29 November 2025

• Imposition of provisional payment in relation to anti-dumping duties against the alleged circumvention of the anti-dumping duties on new pneumatic tyres of rubber of a kind used in motor cars, classifiable under tariff subheadings 4011.10.01, 4011.10.03, 4011.10.05, 4011.10.07 and 4011.10.09 and on buses or lorries, classifiable under tariff subheadings 4011.20.16, 4011.20.18 and 4011.20.26 through country hopping originating in or imported from the People’s Republic of China via the Kingdom of Cambodia, the Kingdom of Thailand, and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (ITAC Report No. 748)

With retrospective effect from 14 March 2025

• Amendment to Schedule No. 1, by the substitution of paragraph 1 of General Note O, to include The Gambia as part of the State Parties in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement

Publication details will be made available later

29 May 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:

Saturday, 31 May 2025 from 24h00 to 05h00 Sunday, 1 June 2025

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

29 May 2025 – In this issue, we provide guidance on simplifying tax compliance for both taxpayers and third-party data providers. More functionalities are now available on the SARS Online Query System (SOQS) and the Corporate Income Tax (CIT) guide has been updated. We also offer comprehensive information on how and where taxpayers can update their banking details. Lastly, we remind you that Help-you-eFile has been decommissioned.

29​ May 2025 – SARS has observed that some employers have not yet completed their PAYE reconciliation using the updated version of e@syFile™. SARS has temporarily re-enabled access to the previous version of the system. Employers that need to download the previous version (7.4.5) can use this download link. This measure is intended to support employers who have not yet transitioned to the new version, enabling them to meet the submission deadline of 31 May 2025.

Employers are encouraged to finalise their submissions as soon as possible to ensure compliance.

27 May 2025 – The Limpopo & North West tax workshop schedules for June 2025 are now available.

26 May 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.

23 May 2025 – SARS invites you to tender for the goods and/or services as detailed in RFP01/2025. The conditions in the SARS Chain Management Policy and the Regulatory Framework which governs tenders at SARS are applicable to this tender process

23 May 2025 – Tax Administration Act, 2011: Public Notice 6217 as published in Government Gazette 52712 of 23 May 2025 relating to returns to be submitted by a person in terms of section 25 of the Tax Administration Act, 2011, read with section 66(1) of the Income Tax Act, 1962

22 May 2025 – SARS has observed that some employers have not yet completed their PAYE reconciliation using the updated version of e@syFile™. SARS has temporarily re-enabled access to the previous version of the system. This measure is intended to support employers who have not yet transitioned to the new version, enabling them to meet the submission deadline of 31 May 2025.

Employers are encouraged to finalise their submissions as soon as possible to ensure compliance.

23 May 2025 – The below upgrade has been postponed to a later date, more communication will follow.

22 May 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, 23 May 2025 from 20h00 to 02h00 Saturday, 24 May 2025.

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

21 May 2025 – The South African Revenue Service (SARS) recognises the funding challenges that the country faces. We are steadfast in our commitment to serve the nation with integrity and efficiency. SARS plays a vital role in the collection of revenues that support the delivery of public services. We accept the responsibility to achieve the 2025/26 revenue estimate presented by the Finance Minister Mr Enoch Godongwana.

The Minister, in his Budget Speech today, announced the 2025/26 financial-year revenue estimate of R1.986 trillion. This revenue estimate comes against the backdrop of SARS’s final unaudited revenue outcome for 2024/25, which is R1.86 trillion, R8.9 billion more than the Revised Estimate.

2025 Budget Overview.

It is worth noting there are key shifts in the global economic assumptions, which has seen a downward revision by the International Monetary Fund such as the global economic growth outlook of 3.3% to 2.8%. The global revision has a direct effect to the local economic assumptions for 2025/26 that speaks to lower nominal GDP, as well as the Consumer Price Inflation against March Budget 2025.

Nominal GDP for 2025/26 has been revised downwards to R7.87tr (+6.3% y/y) from the reported R8.00tr (+7.0% y/y) in the Budget 2025 and R8.02tr (+6.5%) in the MTBPS 2024. In real terms, the economy is projected to grow by 1.5% in 2025/26, down from 1.9% and 1.6% in Budget 2025 and the MTBPS 2024 respectively. The downward revised outlook reflects a weak outlook for major trading partners and low potential growth amid escalating trade tensions, financial market adjustments, and a highly unpredictable environment. Additionally, the outlook is reflective of persisting domestic economic structural issues, such as integrated logistical network limitations.

Given the current tough domestic and global economic conditions, the R1.986 trillion revenue estimate is a challenging estimate. The estimate announced by the Minister imposes the responsibility on SARS to implement revenue raising initiatives. Debt collection is one such, therefore SARS will specifically accelerate work on collecting all debt, with a specific focus on undisputed debt. SARS acknowledges South Africa’s economic difficulties and the effect that this will have on the aggregate amount of debt collected.

The mandate of SARS is anchored on revenue collection, compliance enhancement and the facilitation of legitimate trade. Importantly, this encompasses analysis of the economic performance and how such performance will impact tax and customs revenue collections. By dutifully implementing its compliance programme, SARS is well positioned to collect all revenue due to the fiscus.

In implementing the compliance programme, SARS moves from the premise that taxpayers are honest and want to be assisted to meet their legal obligation. To do so, SARS provides clarity and certainty to taxpayers to meet their obligations and to make it easy and seamless to transact with the organisation. Where necessary, SARS enforces legal obligations responsibly.

Fiscal citizenship, and our country’s sovereignty to determine our own destiny, requires that we work to mobilise domestic resources to fund our priorities. SARS’s legal mandate enables the government to fund essential services. These services sustain the most vulnerable among us, putting children through school, paying pensions, disbursing child grants, and cushioning the unemployed.

While SARS strives to give legal clarity, it upholds the rights of taxpayers to exercise those rights in law as well. These rights inter-alia include asking for payments to be deferred or paid in instalments, or to dispute the debt. Undeniably, the path ahead will be challenging as we seek to encourage taxpayers to voluntarily settle their outstanding debt and returns. SARS urges taxpayers to work with us in settling outstanding debt. We also assure those taxpayers who are compliant that we will use all legal instruments to share the tax burden fairly by addressing non-compliance.

In the financial year 2024/2025, SARS helped to mitigate a stubbornly high unemployment rate by recruiting and training over 800 new employees to collect debt. This work started with a telephone call and where necessary, included the employment of legal instruments to taxpayers who are indebted to the organisation. This information is based on insights from third party data sources.

SARS has taken valuable lessons from the 2024/25 debt-collection drive. These efforts must result in a minimum collection of R20 billion.

To meet its revised revenue estimate this year, SARS is:

• Refining and using advanced data analytics and artificial intelligence to detect tax-compliance risks, close the tax gap, and improve overall compliance rates. By integrating expanded third-party data sources, such as banking and payroll information, the system can increasingly automate tax assessments and more effectively identify underreported income, thereby strengthening efforts to combat tax evasion.
• Combating the illicit economy, especially in high-revenue sectors such as tobacco, alcohol, and fuel. Through enhanced enforcement against smuggling, counterfeit goods, and black-market transactions, SARS aims to recover substantial revenue losses and deter future non-compliance within these sectors of the informal economy.
• Broadening the tax base by systematically identifying and registering individuals and businesses that have previously operated outside the formal tax system. Targeting the hard-to-tax sectors in the informal economy, particularly small enterprises and self-employed individuals, supports increased revenue mobilisation and helps to reduce reliance on a narrow tax base.
• Closing the tax gap by investing in advanced skills and systems.

SARS Commissioner, Mr Edward Kieswetter said that “the increased revised revenue estimate means that SARS must do more to realise a better life for all South Africans. Indisputably, SARS plays a transformative and catalytic role in funding about 90% of government expenditure, which is essential to the delivery of old age pension grant, health services and the provision of social services without which many of our fellow citizens will be destitute. It is the responsibility we embrace with humility, and we will endeavour to achieve”.

“My sincere gratitude goes to the compliant taxpayers and traders, who have continuously played their part in building our country, Ndza khenza. To all SARS employees, your hard work and perseverance shine bright. The tax revenue you collect is the lifeblood that enables government to build a capable State. I salute you! – he concluded”.

For further information, please contact [email protected]

21 May 2025 – Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana is delivering the National Budget speech today. For the updated Budget Tax Guide and more information, see our Budget webpage.

21 May 2025 – Value-Added Tax Act, 1991

• SARSTC VAT 22315 (VAT) [2025] ZATC JHB (25 April 2025)

VAT input tax deduction on import – point in limine in terms of section 54(2A)(a) of the VAT Act – whether the appellant is entitled to VAT input tax, in the amount of R26 901 845.85.

21 May 2025 – SARS is aware of an issue causing PDFs not to appear as an option on the file-selection screen on SOQS. To upload your PDF files, please change the filter to “All Files” on the file-selection screen. This will allow you to select and upload your PDF documents without any issues.

We are resolving this matter and apologise for the inconvenience.

20 May 2025 – National Legislation: National Treasury issued the following explanatory memoranda:

2025:

• Explanatory Memorandum on Amendments to the Regulations Prescribing Electronic Services for the Purpose of the Definition of “Electronic Services” in Section 1(1) of the Value-Added Tax Act, 1991
• Explanatory Memorandum on Amendments to the Regulations on the Domestic Reverse Charge relating to Valuable Metal issued in terms of Section 74(2) of the Value-Added Tax Act, 1991
• Explanatory Memorandum on Regulations on Determining the VAT Liability in respect of  Casino Table Games of Chance, issued in terms of section 74 of the Value-Added Tax Act, 1991
• Explanatory Memorandum on the Carbon Offset Regulations under the Carbon Tax Act, 2019

2024:

• Explanatory Memorandum on Revenue Laws Amendment Bill, 2024 – Savings Pension
• Explanatory Memorandum on the Taxation Laws Amendment Bill, 2024
• Explanatory Memorandum on the Global Minimum Tax Bill, 2024

20 May 2025 – National Legislation

• Final Response Document – 2024 Draft Revenue Laws Amendment Bill, 2024 Draft Rates and Monetary Amounts and Amendment of Revenue Laws Bill, 2024 Draft Taxation Laws Amendment Bill, 2024 Draft Tax Administration Laws Amendment Bill, Global Minimum Tax Bill and Global Minimum Tax Administration Bill – October 2024

19 May 2025 – This update requires a full uninstall and reinstall from the eFiling website.

The following changes were made in version 8.0.0_2.5.9:

• Enhancement made for payroll import files to align with SARS PAYE BRS. Certain certificates (IRP5/IT3(a) are not being successfully imported into the e@syFile TC application, and this has been corrected.
• Enhancement made for manual capture of source code 3926 to align with SARS PAYE BRS.
• Enhancement made to e@syFile Installation Screen Messaging

See more detail in the release notes.

19 May 2025 –  An updated Eastern Cape mobile tax unit schedule for May to June 2025 is now available.

19 May 2025 – Value-Added Tax Act, 1991

• Draft Binding General Ruling 4 (Issue 4) – Apportionment methodology to be applied by a municipality

Due date for comment: 20 June 2025