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2024 Legal and Policy

Legal and Policy - 12 September 2024

Description

SARS

· 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

  • 6 September 2024 – The latest scam is an email indicating you have an outstanding amount to be paid to SARS. The scam asks you to click a link, which goes to a fraudulent website.

See an example of the latest refund scam here. Make sure the email or SMS is genuine before you click on any link.

Protect yourself from scams and phishing!

· Do not open or respond to emails from unknown sources.

· Beware of emails or SMSs asking for personal, tax, banking or eFiling details.

· SARS will never send you hyperlinks to other websites.

Watch our short tutorial video on how to spot scams.

All known scams are listed on the Scams and Phishing webpage and if in doubt, email the IT security team on phishing@sars.gov.za.

  • 9 September 2024 – The state provides state warehouses for the safekeeping of goods. These are managed by Customs. The purpose of this list of unentered goods is to notify the importer, exporter and any other person that has interest in the goods that the goods have been taken up into the State warehouse and if they remain unentered they will be disposed in accordance with the provisions of the Customs & Excise Act.

See the latest Customs Weekly List of Unentered Goods here.

  • 10 September 2024 – In line with our strategic objective that aims to make it easy for all taxpayers to meet their personal tax obligations, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) is implementing changes to the medical aid data reporting requirements. SARS has recognised the challenges faced by taxpayers in submitting medical aid data accurately and on time. To simplify this process and reduce the burden on taxpayers, SARS is making changes to the data that is required from medical aid schemes.

Medical aid data changes include:

  • Provision of data on disabled principal members and their dependents.
  • Data of persons making payment on behalf of principal members.
  • Separate non-allowable from the allowable expenses, currently reported as claims not paid or covered by medical schemes on the IT3(f) certificate.

For ease of reference, the changes in the latest External Medical Scheme Contributions Business Requirement Specification (BRS) (v1.09-2) are as follows:

· Field 4, File Layout Version must be 3.

· Updated the fields (182 and 206) for .

· Updated the Medical Practitioner HPSCA number fields (196 and 220) for Principal Member and Dependant.

· Updated the end date of disability fields (195 and 219) for Principal Member and Dependant.

· Updated the non-allowable source code (Appendix A).

· Updated the Logic validation for Third-Party Payor unique number field (235) under the Person Paying Account Financial Data.

These changes will also allow SARS to reduce audit interventions, enable speedy assessment of tax returns and assist in allocating medical tax credits to the correct taxpayers.

File submission structures

Effective 5 October 2024, medical scheme contributions must be provided in line with the requirements outlined in the new BRS (v10.9-2).

Channels for submission

The new Medical Scheme Contributions solution will be available via Connect: Direct® and Secured File Gateway [HTTPS].

Trade testing

The medical aid data trade testing is scheduled from 16 September 2024 to 4 October 2024.

Should you have any trade testing queries, please refer them to SARSTradeTesting@sars.gov.za with the subject line “Medical Trade Testing”.

Please ensure that all your submissions are completed within the specified period to facilitate a smooth submission process. Note that:

· The Test Platform will remain open throughout the submission period to ensure that all the data files that you have submitted conform to the specified BRS prior to being submitted to Production. Testing support is available to address any issues identified during testing.

· The Production Platform is also open. SARS encourages you to submit your third-party data for the 2024 tax year as soon as possible, but no later than 31 October 2024.

Transition period

To ensure a smooth transition, SARS will grant a grace period of six (6) months for partial submission of the requested data, while stakeholders obtain resources to achieve full compliance. For cases of partial compliance, reasons and a commitment date for full compliance must be submitted to Bus_Sys_CDSupport@sars.gov.za.

Refer testing queries to SARSTradeTesting@sars.gov.za with the subject ‘Medical Trade Testing’.

  • 10 September 2024 – The SARS Third Party Data Annual Submissions process for the period 1 March 2024 – 30 September 2024 opened on 1 September 2024 and will close on 31 October 2024. For more information see the Third Party Data Submission Platform webpage.

· 11 September 2024 – Income Tax Act, 1962

· BPR 410 – Disposal by a controlled foreign company of equity shares in a foreign company

  • 11 September 2024 – The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has received a total 161,607 tax directive applications. This includes the directives which have been cancelled. 159, 853 relates to Savings Withdrawal Benefits, which is 98.9% of the total number of applications received from Sunday 1 to 10 September 2024, which means SARS received an average of 17,964 tax directive applications a day.

Gross amount of the lumpsums for the applications received totals R4.1 billion.

SARS Commissioner Edward Kieswetter said contributions made to a pension or retirement fund were not taxed at the time of payment to the fund but deferred to the time the person retires and then taxed at a reduced rate. However, when an individual withdraws now, they will be taxed at their marginal tax rate.

See the full Media Release here.

ATAF

NATIONAL TREASURY

AuthorLegal and Policy
DivisionTax
Keywords
12 September 2024
Legal and Policy
SARS
Date12 September 2024