Tshwane, 5 March 2021 – The South African Revenue Service (SARS) is committed to providing certainty and clarity to all taxpayers and traders regarding their tax and customs obligations so that they can remain compliant and to ensure that transacting with the organisation is as simple and easy as possible.

However, the ease and simplicity of transactions with SARS depends on each segment of taxpayers, traders and third parties fulfilling their legal obligations to ensure a seamless service offering by SARS.

Therefore, SARS calls on employers to ensure that they are ready to submit their annual reconciliation declarations with the latest and most accurate payroll information about their employees and the tax they have deducted.

At the same time, SARS expects that providers of third party information from institutions who administer medical aid schemes, retirement annuities and others also provide the latest and accurate information to make it easy for taxpayers who are required to file an income tax return. 

The data that must be submitted to SARS from employers should cover the Monthly Employer Declarations submitted, payments made and Tax Certificates (IRP5/IT3) (a)s generated, covering the full tax year from 1 March to 28/29 February. Information submitted by third parties should cover the same tax period.

From the side of employers, their payroll data is of vital importance to SARS. Firstly, it gives a reconciled account of what amounts of tax the employer deducted from the taxable remuneration of each of its employees. Secondly, it shows what amount of tax the employer has paid to SARS on behalf of the employee. It also records other allowances that an employer pays to an employee as part of their remuneration benefits.

Based on this payroll information and data from third parties, SARS will be able to issue an income tax return to taxpayers that is pre-populated with the relevant information for the ease and convenience of taxpayers who do not have complex tax affairs. For these taxpayers, filing a return becomes a simple matter of checking that all the information pre-populated on the return is correct and then submitting the return to SARS.

Employers and third parties have from 1 April to 31 May to submit their data to SARS.

In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and the relief offered to individuals, employees and employers in distress, SARS is determined to ensure that the compliance rate amongst employers increases substantially this year.

Employers who fail to submit payroll data on time may become liable for late submission penalties of up to 10% of the value of their payroll.

During this challenging period of Covid-19, it is incumbent on every taxpayer and trader to remain compliant. Such compliance and revenue contributions enables government to provide the important social goods and services to vulnerable South Africans and to employ our heroic frontline workers in the fight against Covid-19. These contributions have also enabled government to begin a vaccination programme to create a herd immunity against the virus.

SARS sincerely thanks the compliant employers who have remained compliant every year by filing their declarations and making the necessary payments on time. In the interests of their employers and a seamless and hassle-free filing season, we urge all employers to now prepare accurate and up-to-date information that should be submitted to SARS.

Tshwane, 24 February 2021– The South African Revenue Service (SARS) welcomes the upwardly revised revenue collection estimate announced by the Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni in his 2021 Budget Review presentation in Parliament today.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on tax revenue collection due to the economic collapse far greater than that of the 2008 financial crisis. Key risks to economic growth and revenue remain the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. This has precipitated job losses together with retrenchments, low consumption demand, strained company profitability following hard the lockdown and uncertain global demand.

The International Monetary Fund anticipates South Africa’s 2020 GDP outcome to suffer a dramatic contraction of 7.5%. Economic activity is expected to gain momentum in 2021; however, renewed waves and new variants of the virus pose concerns for the outlook amidst recent vaccine approvals. An expectation of weak growth momentum reflects the lingering effects of the pandemic and the likelihood that some mitigation measures will need to remain in place.

The revenue outcome highlights the severe economic impact of COVID-19 on a struggling economy. Expectations of tax base growth have deteriorated significantly since the 2020 Budget. Personal Income Tax (PIT) collection has been affected by rising unemployment and lower earnings. Corporate Income Tax (CIT) collections have been contracting since 2018/19, driven by amongst others, falling corporate profits. Specific excise duties are expected to fall by nearly 50% as a result of restrictions on trading activity and tax deferrals.

Since October 2020, there has been a stronger-than-expected rebound in Domestic Value-Added tax (VAT) and Customs duties flowing from the rise in consumption once lockdown restrictions were eased. Monthly domestic VAT collections since August were higher than the corresponding months in 2019, and Fuel levy collections have also improved.

The stronger commodity prices towards the end of 2020 coupled with the depreciation of the rand have boosted commodity sales as global demand rise, thus underpinning the increase in collection of tax revenues (CIT provisional) from the mining sector.

Despite a very challenging and constrained-operating environment, revenue collections have been trending well above the targets set out in the October 2020 Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS). As a result of the recovery in consumption and wages between October and December 2020, and a boost to CIT receipts from the mining sector, 2020/21 revenue collections are expected to be R99.6 billion above the 2020 MTBPS estimate.

The Minister has thus increased the revenue estimate in anticipation of better than expected revenue collections to R1 212.2 billion and the 2021/22 estimate is set at R1 365.1 billion. The FY2020/21 tax-to-GDP ratio now stands at 24.6% and is forecast to only rebound to the pre-COVID 19 levels of 26.3% in the fiscal year 2027/28. The projected revenue collections of R1 212.2 billion reflects tax revenues for the financial year to March 2021 that are contracting faster at 10.6% than the economy which is projected to contract at 4.4% for the same period. The revenues have been impacted, amongst others by the tax relief measures, companies moving into assessed loss with the resultant effect of slowing down the recovery of corporate income taxes, employment and salary levels dropping with an adverse impact on employment taxes and finally overall consumption not rebounding quick enough to the pre-Covid19 levels thus affecting consumption taxes recovery. Furthermore, the sharper rate of declines in the revenues reflects the impact of the bans on the sale of alcohol and cigarettes and the foregone excise taxes.  In the midst of the challenging year, SARS has heightened its compliance activities which has seen a R107bn impact which is embedded in the reported revenues as at 31 December 2020.

The uncertainty in the economy is likely to persist in 2021/2022 but we are committed to work assiduously, sparing no efforts, to reach the estimate. We will continue to provide certainty, clarity and predictability to taxpayers to enable them to meet their obligations. SARS is accelerating innovations towards its vision to make it seamless for standard income earners, and easier for all taxpayers to engage with the organisation. As we deepen the culture of voluntary compliance, we are also working to make it hard and costly for the non-compliant taxpayers. 

We are on a journey to build  “a smart modern SARS, with unquestionable integrity, trusted and admired”. Our focus is on a number of priorities amongst others is to expand  the level data of taxpayers through third-party and other sources of information, as well as increase the use of data through machine learning and artificial intelligence. Emphasis is on broadening the tax base, improving tax compliance, an increased focus on wealth tax, and stepping up efforts to respond to the illicit and criminal economy.

Thank you to all South Africans, for your contributions and support.

Your tax matters!

For more information, contact [email protected].

To access this page in different languages click on the links below:

Pretoria, Monday 8 February 2021 – The South African Revenue Service (SARS) reminds taxpayers that the Filing Season deadline for provisional taxpayers ends on 15 February 2021.

SARS Commissioner Edward Kieswetter said taxpayers are encouraged to use eFiling or the SARS MobiApp, which is a convenient and safe online method to transact with SARS under the current circumstances.

He urged taxpayers who received auto-assessment notices last year but who have not yet either accepted the auto-assessments, or edited and filed a return in response to the notice, to make use of this opportunity to do so.

Commissioner Kieswetter also urged these taxpayers to comply with their legal obligations by 15 February 2021, as it is vital that all taxpayers remain compliant. Failure by provisional taxpayers and auto-assessment taxpayers to edit and file a return to comply by this date will result in administrative penalties being levied.

The Commissioner concluded by asserting that, “While SARS believes that most taxpayers and traders comply voluntarily and want to do the right thing, we also have measures we can use to enforce compliance. However, such enforcement always remains a last resort”.

To access this page in different languages click on the links below:

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Online Bookings

Taxpayers and Tax Practitioners should book an appointment before visiting a branch,

Tax Relief for Employers

SARS has published detailed Questions & Answers for the COVID-19 tax relief for PAYE. See our FAQs on the Tax Relief measures,

High call volumes

We are experiencing high call volumes and appreciate your patience during this time.

31 May Employers’ deadline

SARS reminds employers of their obligation to submit payroll information on or before the deadline of Sunday 31 May 2020. Compliant employers make it easier for their employees,

Trade Statistics

SARS released trade statistics for April 2020 recording a trade deficit of R35.02 billion attributable to exports of R53.01 billion and imports of R88.03 billion,

eFiling downtime

Due to ongoing maintenance, eFiling may not be available on Wednesday, 16 October 2019, from 19:00 to 20:00. Our apologies for any inconvenience.

VAT Notice of Registration

VAT vendors can now obtain a VAT notice of registration on eFiling, by following a few easy steps. The VAT vendor needs to be a registered eFiler,

Supporting documents

No need to go to a branch to submit supporting documents if you are not an eFiler, you can now submit through this website,

Third Party Data

Third Party Data Annual Submissions is now open from 15 April to 31 May 2020. Banks, medical schemes, fund administrators etc. are required to send returns to SARS,

Waiving of penalties

Businesses that are incapable of making payment due to the COVID-19 disaster, may apply to defer tax payments without incurring penalties by emailing us,

VAT Refunds Relief

VAT vendors currently registered to file VAT returns on a bi-monthly may now file VAT returns on a monthly basis, thereby allowing the earlier unlocking of refunds,

Temporary branch closures

Some SARS branch offices may be closed from time-to-time, please see the list,

Forgot eFiling password?

We realise that you only file your tax once a year so it’s easy to forget your password. So if you’ve forgotten your eFiling password, here’s some help,

No need to go to a Branch

Available on eFiling: Enquire on debt outstanding and make a payment, enquire on returns outstanding, Tax Compliance Status, Request Statement of Account,

Tax Directives easier now

Tax Practitioners and Individuals may now apply for IRP3(b) and IRP3(c) Tax Directives through their eFiling profiles rather than having to going into a SARS Branch,

Online Bookings

Taxpayers and Tax Practitioners should book an appointment before visiting a branch,

Tax Relief for Employers

SARS has published detailed Questions & Answers for the COVID-19 tax relief for PAYE. See our FAQs on the Tax Relief measures,

High call volumes

We are experiencing high call volumes and appreciate your patience during this time.

31 May Employers’ deadline

SARS reminds employers of their obligation to submit payroll information on or before the deadline of Sunday 31 May 2020. Compliant employers make it easier for their employees,

Trade Statistics

SARS released trade statistics for April 2020 recording a trade deficit of R35.02 billion attributable to exports of R53.01 billion and imports of R88.03 billion,

eFiling downtime

Due to ongoing maintenance, eFiling may not be available on Wednesday, 16 October 2019, from 19:00 to 20:00. Our apologies for any inconvenience.

VAT Notice of Registration

VAT vendors can now obtain a VAT notice of registration on eFiling, by following a few easy steps. The VAT vendor needs to be a registered eFiler,

Supporting documents

No need to go to a branch to submit supporting documents if you are not an eFiler, you can now submit through this website,

Third Party Data

Third Party Data Annual Submissions is now open from 15 April to 31 May 2020. Banks, medical schemes, fund administrators etc. are required to send returns to SARS,

Waiving of penalties

Businesses that are incapable of making payment due to the COVID-19 disaster, may apply to defer tax payments without incurring penalties by emailing us,

VAT Refunds Relief

VAT vendors currently registered to file VAT returns on a bi-monthly may now file VAT returns on a monthly basis, thereby allowing the earlier unlocking of refunds,

Temporary branch closures

Some SARS branch offices may be closed from time-to-time, please see the list,

Forgot eFiling password?

We realise that you only file your tax once a year so it’s easy to forget your password. So if you’ve forgotten your eFiling password, here’s some help,

No need to go to a Branch

Available on eFiling: Enquire on debt outstanding and make a payment, enquire on returns outstanding, Tax Compliance Status, Request Statement of Account,

Tax Directives easier now

Tax Practitioners and Individuals may now apply for IRP3(b) and IRP3(c) Tax Directives through their eFiling profiles rather than having to going into a SARS Branch,