Legal and Policy - 4 May 2023

SARS:

• 3 May 2023 – Please note that the SARS Third Party Data production platforms for both Secure File Gateway and Connect:Direct will be temporarily offline for planned maintenance between 03:00am and 06:00am on Saturday 6 May 2023. Please do not submit any files in the Production environment during this time, as they will not be processed.
• 3 May 2023- The South African Revenue Service (SARS) wishes to provide an update with respect to the matter of Tax Clearance Status. As the previous Tax Clearance Status (TCS) solution had been operational since April 2016 and processed substantial and growing volumes of taxpayers requesting 3rd party verification requests, including Foreign Investment Allowance and Emigration, there was need for an enhancement to the system to rationalise and speed it up. In addition, following the announcement of the abolition of emigration as an exchange control concept in 2020, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has removed the requirement to apply to emigrate financially (the MP336 application). This has necessitated changes to SARS’ processes and forms.

The enhanced TCS system was introduced on 24 April 2023 following consultations with authorised dealers and the SARB. It supports the strategic objectives of SARS to make it easier for taxpayers to comply.

See the full media statement here.

• 2 May 2023 – Customs Weekly List of Unentered Goods
• 2 May 2023 – The law enforcement team comprising of South African Revenue Service, South African Police Service and the Tshwane Metro Police acting on a tip-off intercepted a truck carrying illicit cigarettes at Bronkhorstspruit on the early hours of Monday, 1 May 2023.

The illicit cigarettes were imported through Beit Bridge where they were falsely declared as tea leaves. The truck was stopped at Bronkhorstspruit. On being approached, the driver fled the scene and the truck and its consignment was detained.

See the full media statement here.

• 28 April 2023 – South Africa recorded a preliminary trade balance surplus of R6.9 billion in March 2023. This surplus is attributable to exports of R192.2 billion and imports of R185.3 billion.

See the Media Release – March 2023 here.

Visit the Trade Statistics webpages.

• 28 April 2023 – The latest Tender Bids Received document is now available.
• 26 April 2023 – Changes have been made to the e@syFile™ Employer AA88 system to enhance and fix some of the issues that have been identified in the system.

The following enhancements have been made:

• Improvement and fixes to the “delta” synchronisation process when users synchronise using an existing production database

• A new function to clear all previous AA88 data to do a new full synchronisation

• The unique AA88 Transaction Number was added as new filter and search option

• The status code “07’ for defaulted transactions will be grouped with Inactive status codes, “04” and “09”

• Fix applied to Assessed Tax AA88 duplication check

The Third Party Appointment AA88 e@syFile guide has been updated.

NATIONAL TREASURY:

• MFMA Circular No. 124: Municipal Debt Relief – 3 May 2023
• Municipal Debt Relief Fact Sheet 03 May 2023 – 3 May 2023
• Municipal Debt Relief PPT – 3 May 2023

• Statement of the National Revenue, Expenditure and Borrowing as at 31 March 2023 – 28 April 2023

OECD:

• Asia is levelling the playing field towards more tax transparency, but commitment and progress are still needed to achieve its full potential – 27 April 2023