News

24 February 2023 – As communicated earlier this week, achieving our Vision 2024 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 & technology infrastructure. In order to provide clarity & certainty, make it easy for taxpayers & traders to comply with their obligations and building public trust and confidence, our technology assets have to demonstrate the highest levels of availability, robustness and security.

Pursuant to 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 & technology infrastructure are available, robust & secure, by performing regular upgrades, enhancements and maintenance.

In the light of the above, system upgrades are scheduled for Saturday, 25 February from 14:00 until 18:00. During this time various Tax Products on eFiling may not be available.

Source: SARS Tariffs
Reminder – Upgrade of the SARS platform

24 February 2023 – Enhanced cooperation and collaboration between SAPS/ DPCI (Hawks) and SARS is being bolstered with the signing of a new memorandum of understanding that promotes the exchange of information, joint initiatives and more effective operational arrangements in line with Financial Action Task Force (FATF) requirements.

View full statement here.

Source: SARS Tariffs
Media Release – New accord further cements collaboration between SAPS/ DPCI and SARS

22 February 2023 – Income Tax Act, 1962

The income tax notices, scheduled for publication in the Government Gazette, relate to the –

• fixing of rate per kilometre in respect of motor vehicles – section 8(1)(b)(ii) and (iii);
• determination of the daily amount in respect of meals and incidental costs for purposes of section 8(1)(c)(ii) (overnight allowance); and
• determination of the daily amount in respect of meals and incidental costs for purposes of section 8(1)(a)(ii) (daily allowance).

Publication details will follow in due course

Source: SARS Tariffs
Legal Counsel – Secondary Legislation – Income Tax Notices 2023

21 February 2023 – Achieving our Vision 2024 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 & technology infrastructure. In order to provide clarity & certainty, make it easy for taxpayers & traders to comply with their obligations and building public trust and confidence, our technology assets have to demonstrate the highest levels of availability, robustness and security.

Pursuant to 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 & technology infrastructure are available, robust & secure, by performing regular upgrades, enhancements and maintenance.

In the light of the above, system upgrades are scheduled for Saturday, 25 February from 14:00 until 18:00. During this time various Tax Products may not be available.

Source: SARS Tariffs
Upgrade of the SARS platform

17 February 2023 – As communicated on 14 February, a reminder of the impact of the upgrade of the eFiling platform. In our pursuit of achieving Vision 2024 of a smart, modern SARS with unquestionable integrity that is trusted and admired, our vision is underpinned by 9 strategic objectives, and of importance in this regard is Strategic Objective 6, which deals with availability of our digital channels and no security breaches due to known risks.

Pursuant to these strategic objectives, and delivering on our important services, we are working hard to ensure that our digital platforms and technology infrastructure are secure, and free of known vulnerabilities by performing regular maintenance.

Planned maintenance will take place on Friday, 17 February 2023 from 20:00 until 6:00 on Saturday morning. During this time frame, you may experience intermittent service interruption on eFiling. We apologise for any inconvenience that may be caused.

Source: SARS Tariffs
Reminder – Upgrade of the SARS eFiling Technical Platform

17 February 2023 – The Pinetown branch will be closing today (17 February 2023) at its current address of 36 Kings Road.
Pinetown. It will be reopening as a Pop-up Branch at Union Main Centre (parking area), 45 Josiah Gumede Road, Pinetown on 20 February 2023. Operating hours:  08h30 – 15h00 Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday; 09h30 – 15h00 Wednesday. All current services will be offered at the new location by appointment.

Source: SARS Tariffs
Pinetown branch closure

16 February 2023 – The Excise submission and payment dates for 2023/2024 have been published.

Source: SARS Tariffs
Excise – Submission and payment dates

14 February 2023 – In order to comply with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) requirements, SARS aims to record all beneficial owners of newly registered Trusts.  The Trust Registration query on SARS Online Query System has been enhanced to allow for the capturing of the beneficial owner’s details. For more information, see the updated Guide for the SARS Online Query System.

Source: SARS Tariffs
Trust Registration Beneficial Owners Details

14 February 2023 – We are aware of connection issues with Live Chat on eFiling. Our technical team is in the process of resolving it. Our apologies for the inconvenience.

Source: SARS Tariffs
SARS Live Chat

13 February 2023 – Individual provisional taxpayers are required to submit their second provisional tax return (IRP6) before or on 28 February 2023. This is for the tax year 2023, which runs from 1 March 2022 to 28 February 2023.

Two provisional tax returns are required from individual provisional taxpayers during a tax year: one for the first six-month period (due end of August) and one at the end of the tax year (due end of February).

Who is a provisional taxpayer: A provisional taxpayer is any person who receives income or to whom income accrues other than remuneration, an allowance, or an advance. If you have other sources of income above your salary that meet the requirements for provisional tax, you may be a provisional taxpayer. Important note: earning extra income does not automatically make you a Provisional taxpayer. Your income must meet the requirements for provisional tax for you to qualify as a provisional taxpayer.

Submission requirements: In relation to the second period, as a provisional taxpayer, you are required to estimate your taxable income for the full tax year and submit a provisional tax return, together with payment where applicable (after having considered any provisional tax payment made in the first period and any employees’ tax paid for the tax year). Click here to calculate the provisional tax payable.

How to file: Activate your provisional tax status on your eFiling profile by selecting the ‘User’ and ‘Tax Products’ tabs.  Once activated, select the ‘Returns’ tab to access your provisional tax (IRP6) return.

For more info, see the Provisional Tax webpage.

 

Source: SARS Tariffs
Individual provisional taxpayers’ deadline