What’s New at SARS

9 June 2023 – National Legislation: Draft Bills and Explanatory Memoranda

• 2023 Draft Revenue Administration and Pension Laws Amendment Bill
  • Draft Memorandum on Objects of 2023 Draft Revenue Administration and Pension Laws Amendment Bill
• 2023 Draft Revenue Laws Amendment Bill
  • Draft Explanatory Memorandum on the 2023 Draft Revenue Laws Amendment Bill

Due date for comment: 15 July 2023

9 June 2023 – The June to November 2023 mobile tax unit schedules for Eastern Cape is now available.

9 June 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 light of the above, Customs Systems upgrades are scheduled for Friday, 9 June from 20:00 PM to Saturday 10 June 2:00 AM and Saturday 10 June from 14:00 PM to 20:00 PM. During this time, you may experience intermittent service interruption on our Customs Digital Platform.

9 June 2023 – RFI02/2023

Integrated Strategic Sourcing and Purchasing Solution (eTendering and ePurchasing)

9 June 2023 – RFI01/2023: Back Up Solution

As other organizations SARS backs up its data assets. In order to do this in an accurate manner, SARS must keep up with market technology trends. This RFI details the requirements for a SAN network backup storage solution. Click here to view the tender documents.

9 June 2023 – Updated Prohibited and Restricted Imports and Exports list.

Goods classified under tariff heading 8408.90.65 are not restricted.

8 June 2023 – Income Tax Act, 1962

• Interpretation Note 130 – Exemption for international aid received or accrued under an official development assistance agreement

8 June 2023 – Income Tax Act, 1962: Average Exchange Rates

• Table A – A list of the average exchange rates of selected currencies for a year of assessment as from December 2003
• Table B – A list of the monthly average exchange rates to assist a person whose year of assessment is shorter or longer than 12 months

7 June 2023 – Customs Weekly List of Unentered Goods

7 June 2023 – Updated: Prohibited and Restricted Imports and Exports list.

Tariff headings 3503 and 3504 to be detained for State Vet.

The below tariff headings are to be detained for NRCS.

8404.4, 84.71, 8471.3, 8471.41, 8471.49, 8471.50, 8471.60, 8471.70, 8471.80, 8471.90, 8504.31, 8504.40, 8504.50, 85.16, 8507.60, 8516.10, 8516.10.90, 8517.62, 8517.62.10, 8517.62.90, 8517.69, 8518.21, 8518.22, 8518.29, 8518.30, 8518.40, 8518.50, 8519.20, 8519.30, 8519.81.05, 8519.81.10, 8519.81.90, 8519.89.10, 8519.89.90, 8521.90.10, 8521.90.90, 8523.21, 8523.41, 8523.41, 8523.51, 8523.52, 8523.52.10, 8523.52.90, 8523.59, 8543.70, 9028.30, 9503.00.10, 9503.00.90, 95.04

6 June 2023 – Land border posts are currently experiencing congestion and delays in relation to the cross-border processing of trucks and cargo, with the N4 corridor to Maputo through the Lebombo border post being the most affected.

Joint media statement by:

SOUTH AFRICAN REVENUE SERVICE (SARS)

SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE SERVICE (SAPS)

BORDER MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY (BMA)

ROAD FREIGHT ASSOCIATION (RFA)

SOUTH AFRICAN ASSOCIATION OF FREIGHT FORWARDERS (SAAFF)

TO ALL CROSS-BORDER TRANSPORTERS

Land border posts are currently experiencing congestion and delays in relation to the cross-border processing of trucks and cargo, with the N4 corridor to Maputo through the Lebombo border post being the most affected.

The South African Revenue Service (SARS), the South African Police Service (SAPS), the Border Management Authority (BMA), the Road Freight Association (RFA), and the South African Association of Freight Forwarders (SAAFF) are working collaboratively and with urgency to manage the challenges that are currently being experienced and to restore border processing to normal as soon as possible.

We call on all affected transporters and truck drivers to assist with this effort, exercise patience and restraint, and to refrain from acting in a manner not conducive to maintaining the organised flow of traffic to and through our borders. These include disregarding traffic rules, blocking lanes, and disabling trucks from moving.

Maintaining the orderly and continuous movement of trucks to the border is imperative to enable the processing of trucks to take place on a manual and interim basis pending the resolution of the technical challenges being experienced. In this regard, and to avoid further congestion, we also request trucks without a “Proceed to Border” notification status not to approach the border and not to park at the border while awaiting clearance documents. We urge all traders to use the functionality to pre-clear consignments.

Stakeholders can be assured that our technical teams are working around the clock to resolve the issues being experienced. Our respective officers are collectively doing their utmost to manually process trucks as fast as possible and we endeavour to maintain law and order on the affected cargo corridors, as well as in border control areas.

We kindly request your assistance in communicating this message to your drivers and business partners and will keep you informed and updated of progress made to remedy the situation.

6 June 2023 – The June 2023 mobile tax unit schedule for Western Cape is now available.

6 June 2023 – Income Tax Act, 1962

• Binding Private Ruling 389 – Bursaries awarded by a resident company

6 June 2023 – Be wary of random requests to click on a link to view account in arrears. Please do not click on any suspicious links and delete these emails. If in doubt, email [email protected].

See the latest scam here.

6 June 2023 – RFP33/2022: Acquisition of Software Asset Management Tool, Professional Services and Maintenance and Support.

More information is now available in the following document:

Communication no 5

5 June 2023 – Updated guide on the rules built in the RAV01 form when PAYE and SDL liability dates are completed or updated.

• GEN-REG-01-G04 – How to Complete Registration Amendments and Verification (RAV01) Form

2 June 2023 – The PAYE Employer Reconciliation BRS for the 2024 tax year was updated.

The PAYE BRS for Employer Reconciliation version 22 1 1 is now published (previous version was 22 1 0).

The validation rules for source codes 3903/3953, 3905/3955 and 4150 was amended in this version.

2 June 2023 – The launch edition of the SMME Traders Connect Newsletter is now available. This will be a quarterly publication which focuses on trader-related tax matters to create awareness and share relevant information to make it easier for traders to remain compliant.  In this edition we provide clarity and certainty for taxpayers and traders of their tax obligations, making it easy for taxpayers and traders to comply with their tax obligations.

2 June 2023 – SARS Commissioner Edward Kieswetter, today announced the appointment of 3 Deputy Commissioners, to strengthen his executive team within SARS. This follows an extensive executive search which resulted in the appointment of one internal candidate and two from private sector.  The appointment of Deputies is also one of the recommendations in the final report of the Commission of Inquiry into Tax Administration and Governance by SARS headed by Judge Robert Nugent.

Read the full statement here.