The Silent Strain: How Bracket Creep and a Flat Tax Table are Impacting South Africans
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.
Voluntary Disclosure Relief for Customs and Excise: A New Avenue to Come Clean
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.
Suspensions of Payment Under the 2025 Tax Administration Laws Amendment Bill: A Narrow Escape from SARS’ Collection Machine
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.
SARS Coming After Foreign Retirement Funds
South Africans who have worked abroad and accumulated foreign retirement funds, or foreign nationals who become South African tax residents, need to urgently be aware that the South African Revenue Service (SARS) now wants taxing rights on their foreign retirement funds. This proposed amendment is set to come into effect on 1 March 2026.
How to Successfully Claim Additional Medical Expenses from SARS This Tax Season
With the 2025 annual tax filing season underway, many South Africans who have incurred significant out-of-pocket medical expenses during the year of assessment, continue to enquire about how they can possibly claim an additional medical tax credit to lower their tax liability.