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2025 Legal and Policy

Legal and Policy - 24 April 2025

Description

SARS

  • 17 April 2025 – Customs and Excise Act, 1964

Due date for comment: 2 May 2025

  • 17 April 2025 – The existing auto merge (actioned by SARS) has been enhanced to cater for likely and possible matches. A possible or likely match refers to records that match one or two key identity information fields, for example surname or name, or registered name for companies. The likely and possible matches will include companies, individuals, and trusts (Testamentary and Intervivos only).

The auto merge process will exclude the following entity records:

  • Large Business and International Tax (LBI) records;
  • Government institutions, municipalities, clubs, welfare organisations, collective investment schemes;
  • Foreign entities registered with a passport number; and
  • Estate cases.

Taxpayers will be informed of the proposed merge via a letter (similar to the previous auto merge performed by SARS), and they will still be afforded the opportunity to object against the auto merge if they are not in agreement with the proposed merge. A request to object against the auto merge can be submitted via eFiling, at a SARS Office or through the SARS Online Query System (SOQS). Taxpayers must provide detailed reasons why a specific record should be excluded from the consolidated profile.

Updated guide:

  • 17 April 2025 – Customs and Excise Act, 1964: Publication details for tariffs amendments notice R6129, as published in Government Gazette 52525 of 17 April 2025, are now available.
  • 17 April 2025 – In this newsletter, we provide information about how tax practitioners can use the SARS MobiApp to assist their clients; the Employer Annual Reconciliation Declarations that commenced on 1 April 2025; updated guides and videos for Tax Exempt Institutions and the Customs Sufficient Knowledge Competency Assessment for Accredited Economic Operators. In addition, we provide details about collaboration agreements that we have entered into with other government institutions and updates to the SARS Payments guide.
  • 17 April 2025 – SARS invites you to tender for the goods and/or services as detailed in RFP39/2024. The conditions in the SARS Chain Management Policy and the Regulatory Framework which governs tenders at SARS are applicable to this tender process.
  • 22 April 2025 – The latest edition of the SARS Government Connect Newsletter Issue 26 (February 2025) is now available. In this newsletter, we provide information on the Employer Annual Declarations commencing on1 April 2025 and updated guides and videos for Tax Exempt Institutions. In addition, we provide details of collaboration agreements that SARS has entered into with other government institutions and updates to the SARS Payments guide.
  • 22 April 2025 – The Corporate Income Tax Guide has been updated to include additional clarity on Beneficial Ownership. As a member of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), South Africa is committed to implementing measures that ensure the availability of adequate, accurate, and timely information regarding the beneficial ownership and control of legal persons and arrangements. In line with this commitment, SARS has introduced requirements for submitting the Beneficial Interest and Beneficial Ownership registers as part of the Income Tax Return for Companies (ITR14) submission process, effective from the 2022 year of assessment.

Updated guide: How to complete the Income Tax Return ITR14 for Companies

  • 23 April 2025 – SARS invites you to tender for the goods and/or services as detailed in RFP31/2024. The conditions in the SARS Chain Management Policy and the Regulatory Framework which governs tenders at SARS are applicable to this tender process.
  • 23 April 2025 – Achieving our Vision 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 and technology infrastructure. To provide clarity and certainty, make it easy for taxpayers and traders to comply with their obligations and building public trust and confidence, our technology assets must demonstrate the highest levels of availability, robustness, and security.

In accordance with 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 and technology infrastructure are available, robust, and secure, by performing regular upgrades, enhancements, and maintenance. Considering the above, SARS Digital platform maintenance is scheduled for: Friday, 25 April 2025 from 18h00 to 22h00. During this time, you may experience intermittent service interruption on our eFiling, Tax and Customs Digital Platforms.

NATIONAL TREASURY

OTO

ATAF

AuthorLegal and Policy
DivisionTax
Categories
Tax
Date24 April 2025