For many taxpayers, especially expatriates, managing South African tax obligations from a distance can be complicated. Years may pass without any direct interaction with the South African Revenue Service (SARS), and key details like contact information, banking details, and tax number status often become outdated.
The South African Revenue Service (SARS)’ proposed Value-Added Tax (VAT) Modernisation Project is geared to combat challenges faced by traders, businesses, and SARS, including compliance inefficiencies, the risk of errors, and tax evasion. Phase 1 will entail inserting key definitions into the VAT Act, including “e-credit note”, “e-debit note” and “interoperability framework”.
Public Benefit Organisations (PBOs) could soon benefit from a more affordable way to comply with the South African Revenue Service (SARS)’ requirement to certify that all section 18A donations for which receipts were issued in a tax year, were indeed utilised for public benefit activities.
The South African Revenue Service (SARS)’ proposed Value-Added Tax (VAT) Modernisation Project is geared to combat challenges faced by traders, businesses, and SARS, including compliance inefficiencies, the risk of errors, and tax evasion. Phase 1 will entail inserting key definitions into the VAT Act, including “e-credit note”, “e-debit note” and “interoperability framework”.
For many taxpayers, especially expatriates, managing South African tax obligations from a distance can be complicated. Years may pass without any direct interaction with the South African Revenue Service (SARS), and key details like contact information, banking details, and tax number status often become outdated.
The South African Revenue Service (SARS) is no longer merely modernising; it is actively tightening the net around trusts to ensure greater transparency, accuracy, and compliance. For trustees, tax practitioners, and other representatives, the 2025 season introduces more stringent obligations that cannot be overlooked.
South Africans made up 10% of the 40,000 people granted New Zealand citizenship in 2024, making them the third largest group of overseas-born nationals to become citizens. The latest census confirms that more than 95,000 South Africans now call New Zealand home, up from 71,382 in 2018.
As South Africa makes its way through another challenging tax year, a subtle but serious financial pressure is beginning to affect more employees across the income spectrum. For the third consecutive year, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) did not adjust the individual income tax tables in line with inflation, a decision with far-reaching implications for both employers and employees.
For years, South Africa’s voluntary disclosure programme (VDP) has allowed taxpayers to correct past defaults on Income Tax, Value-Added Tax (VAT), Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE), and other mainstream taxes under the Tax Administration Act, No. 28 of 2011 (TAA). Often some of the riskiest and most heavily penalised areas of non-compliance, being Customs and Excise, were left outside the framework. That gap is finally closing.
As the 2025 filing season unfolds, taxpayers should be reminded that when the South African Revenue Service (SARS) issues an estimated assessment, often because a taxpayer has not filed a return or failed to provide information on time, the debt is immediately due and payable.