SARS

13 September 2024 – Today is a day of profound sadness with the passing of the beloved Former Minister Pravin Gordhan, affectionately known as “PG” to many of us, a remarkable steward leader whose contributions to the South African Revenue Service (SARS) and our nation will be remembered for generations to come.

“The contribution of Pravin Gordhan may never be truly understood and appreciated by millions of South Africans. For those of us who have had the privilege to work very closely with him, and really got to know him, we will have learnt that he is a man who is truly committed to make contribution to changing the quality of life of South Africans,” were the reflections of Commissioner Ed Kieswetter when Pravin Gordhan was appointed as Finance Minister in 2009.

As the Commissioner of SARS from 1999 – 2009, it was PG who ushered in and evangelised the notion that SARS exists to serve a Higher Purpose of enabling government to build a capable democratic state that fosters sustainable economic growth and social development in the interest and wellbeing of all South Africans. It was he who set the organisation on a path that still directs and inspires us today and will continue for decades to come. PG was, without doubt, the one who conceptualised and laid the foundation for a Modern Tax and Customs Administration.

Pravin Gordhan’s leadership and unwavering commitment to public service have left an indelible mark on South Africa’s economic landscape. As a key figure in SARS, he championed policies and reforms that strengthened the institution, transforming it into a globally respected revenue service. His tenure was marked by an unyielding dedication to integrity, good governance, and accountability, ensuring that SARS became the pillar of strength for the nation’s fiscal health.

Beyond his significant work at SARS, he served South Africa with distinction in various leadership roles, including as Minister of Finance, Minister of Cooperative Government and Traditional Affairs and Minister of Public Enterprises, where his courage and vision guided the country through challenging times. His lifelong commitment to building a fair and just society for all will continue to inspire future generations of public servants and leaders.

“I will remember him as a committed social activist who dedicated his life to the struggle and the improvement of the material conditions of South Africans at a time when we were in the steely grips of state capture, it was PG who stood fearlessly for justice and equality. He spoke with courage of his deep conviction and did not count the tremendous cost to him and his family.” said Commissioner Kieswetter.

We mourn the loss of a true patriot, social activist and a steward leader. PG was a life-long revolutionary, a struggle hero, who confronted apartheid unwaveringly, in the public arena and in the underground terrain. After 1990 he was the chairperson of the transitional government and part of the CODESA negotiations. His legacy will continue to guide SARS and South Africa in its pursuit of ethical governance and economic justice.

Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Vanitha and daughters Anisha and Priyesha, his extended family and friends who experienced his love and friendship, and to all those whose lives were touched by his visionary leadership and dedicated public service.

South Africans remain indebted to his selfless sacrifices and lifelong service. Pravin Gordhan remained a fierce warrior for justice until the very end. May his soul rest in peace.

“Thank you, Pravin, and hamba kahle!”

16 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.

For more information contact SarsMedia@sars.gov.za

16 September 2024 – The date for Trusts filing season is 16 September 2024 to 20 January 2025 for provisional and non-provisional taxpayers.

The following enhancements were implemented based on legal and form changes:

Enhanced deduction for certain machinery, plant, implements, utensils, and articles used in renewable energy production to increase the appeal of the tax incentive by temporarily enhancing the current renewable energy tax incentive in section 12B of the Income Tax Act to encourage greater private investment in renewable energy.
Urban Development Zone (UDZ): The tax incentive’s sunset date has been extended by two years, from 31 March 2023 to 31 March 2025.
Loans, advances, or credit granted to Trusts by connected persons: The exclusion for acquiring a primary residence has been clarified, including funding for improvements to the residence. The limitations regarding the land on which the primary residence is located now also apply.
Public Officer: A new question has been added to the form wizard to confirm that the person appointed as a trustee has not been disqualified.
Donations: The donations questions have been updated to allow the taxpayer to enter up to 20 number of approved organisations, that the Trust donates to.
Request for Reduced Assessment (RRA02): A new feature has been introduced to manage requests for reduced assessments for companies under section 93 of the Tax Administration Act (TAA). Taxpayers must complete the Request for Reduced Assessment (RRA02) form, which will generate a case to determine whether they qualify for a reduced assessment.
Beneficial Ownership: Clarifications have been added to the Beneficial Ownership section to assist in completing information for unnamed beneficiaries.

See the updated Income Tax Return for Trusts as an example – ITR12T prototype.

See the Trusts webpage for more information.

The following guides were updated:

16 September 2024 – The following Corporate Income Tax enhancements were implemented based on legal and form changes:

Tax treatment of an asset acquired as government grant in kind: If a taxpayer acquires an asset as or with a government grant, wear and tear cannot be claimed on the asset. This also means that even if the taxpayer uses the grant to buy another asset, that something cannot be depreciated either (for tax purposes).
Credit Agreements and Debtors Allowance: A new field for “Credit agreement and debtors’ allowance (lay-by) (s24)” will be added to the ITR14 return. This is an allowance that can be claimed in the current year, but it needs to be reversed in the following year.
Additional deduction in respect of learnership agreements: A deduction for learnership agreements can only be allowed if the agreement was entered into before 1 April 2024 and therefore a new validation question will be added to the ITR14 return asking the taxpayer to declare that the agreement was entered into before 1 April 2024.
Refinements to the Research and Development Tax Incentive: Together with the name change to “Department of Science and Innovation”, a new qualification question will be added to the “Tax Allowances / Limitations” container to allow taxpayers to indicate that their incentive approval was not withdrawn.
Expenses incurred in the production of interest: In terms of s11G, taxpayers must limit interest expenses to non-trading interest income. An adjustment field will be added to the tax computations for all company types, thereby allowing taxpayers to add back non-allowable interest.
Enhanced Deduction in respect of certain machinery, plant, implements, utensils and articles used in the production of renewable energy: The ITR14 will be updated to allow taxpayers to claim s12BA allowance. A container will be created for deduction details and qualifying questions. A validation will ensure that the taxpayers claim their 125% deduction.
Extension of the Urban Development Zone (UDZ) Tax Incentive sunset date: The UDZ tax incentive sunset date is extended by another period of two years from 31 March 2023 to 31 March 2025.
Request for Reduced Assessment (RRA02): New functionality has been introduced to manage requests for reduced assessments for companies under s93 of the Tax Administration Act (TAA). Taxpayers are required to complete the Request for Reduced Assessment (RRA02) form. A case will then be created to assess whether the taxpayer qualifies for a reduced assessment.

See the updated Corporate Income Tax Return for Corporate Income Tax as an example – ITR14 prototype.

See the Corporate Income Tax webpage for more information.

The following guides were updated:

GEN-GEN-56-G02 – Submit Request for Reduced Assessment RRA02 via eFiling for Company or Trust – External Guide
IT-GEN-04-G01 – How to complete the Income Tax Return ITR14 for Companies – External Guide
IT-ELEC-03-G01 – Guide to complete the company Income Tax return ITR14 eFiling – External Guide

16 September 2024 – The Employer Interim reconciliation opens 16 September 2024 to 31 October 2024 for the 2025 Employer Filing Season.

The following enhancements have been implemented for the interim PAYE Filing Season:

A new source code has been added to the IRP5/IT3(a) certificate:

Source code 3926 was added relating to the savings withdrawal benefit. Specifically, a withdrawal from a Retirement Fund’s Savings Component/Pot.

Two source codes have been removed on the IRP5/IT3(a) certificate:

Source code 2039 was removed (“Employer Contact Person Fax Number”)
Source code 3137 was removed (“Employee Fax Number”)

Enhancements have been made to the financial fields on the IRP5 certificate: A warning message will be displayed if all digits of a financial field are the same e.g. 4444.00
Updates to the employer statement of account:

The employer statement of account has been enhanced to display the status of payroll taxes.
The statement will now include Employment Tax Incentive (ETI) account balance.

Enhancements to the EMP501 Reconciliation process:

Directive validation module has been enhanced to allow for validation of multiple source codes for one directive number.
The employer will be prevented from requesting EMP501 reconciliation prior to the Interim Filing season start date, e.g. the employer requests an interim EMP501 reconciliation on 20 August 2024 before the start date, which is 16 September 2024. The request will be rejected.
The employer will also be prevented from submitting the saved interim EMP501 reconciliation on eFiling if the final EMP501 reconciliation has been submitted already.
Notification will be issued where an IT3(a) certificate with Income Tax reference number is submitted, and PAYE should have been deducted.

Enhancements to employer deregistration process:

Where amendments were made to the EMP501 reconciliation which is in the Excessive Liability Change (ELC) process, deregistration of payroll taxes will not automatically be re-instated.
The coding date of de-registration will always be set to a date later than the processed date of the last return. This date will not be considered if the Revised Declaration is submitted

Enhancements to ETI account: ETI refund and forfeit process has been enhanced.

See the PAYE webpage for more information.

The e@syFile™ Employer application has been upgraded and the new e@syFile offers improved performance and includes the following features:

Easier navigation and data capture experience has been prioritised with a new look-and-feel and arrangement functions and workflows.
Full installations with every software update.
Quick links to related functionality has been introduced to remove the need to continuously navigate through multiple menu items
Enhanced user maintenance functionality to add and remove users and restrict functionality

Employers can update the old e@syFile™ while still installing the new version, rather than uninstalling the old version. Both the old and new versions can operate on the same PC. For the bi-annual submission, either the old or the new version of e@syFile™ Employer can be used to submit the reconciliation. However, for the annual filing season, only submissions via the new version of e@syFile™ Employer will be accepted.

For more information, see the Frequently Asked Questions on the e@syFile webpage.

The following guides were updated:

16 September 2024 – SARS is in the process of enhancing the letters that it issues to taxpayers relating to the specific supporting documents that are required when they have been selected for verification. For the Revised Estimated Assessment:

If the ITR12T return you submit is routed for verification and there is no response to the request for supporting documents within the required period (after delivery of more than one request for such material), SARS may make a revised estimated assessment in terms of section 95(1)(c) of the Tax Administration Act. A notice of assessment (ITA34) will be issued, to notify you of the reduced/additional estimated assessment and the reason for the adjusted assessment.
You will have the option of submitting the outstanding supporting documents to SARS within 40 business days from the date of adjusted assessment, under section 95(6) of the Tax Administration Act. However, you may provide SARS with reasonable grounds and request an extension of this period, in terms of section 95(7) of the Tax Administration Act.

You can submit supporting documents via eFiling, the SARS Online Query System (online service), or by booking an appointment at a SARS branch.
If you do not provide the supporting documents to SARS within the required period, the estimated assessment will become final and not subject to objection or appeal.

Please note that the Suspension of Payment will be made available later.

17 September 2024 – The Monthly Tax Digest for September 2024 is now available.

18 September 2024 – The South African Revenue Service will hold a memorial service to pay tribute to the life and legacy of former SARS Commissioner, Pravin Gordhan who passed away on 13 September 2024. The service will be live streamed at the following details:

Platform: YouTube — SARS TV channel

When: Monday, 23 September 2024

Time: 10:00 to 12:00

Please click the link below to join the service:

YouTube: https://youtube.com/live/I1X9VgA2wqw?feature=share

Online tribute board

SARS has created an online tribute board for Pravin Gordhan where tributes may be shared.

Various messages have been received from members of the public, friends and SARS employees.

ATAF