The Tax Court has handed down a pivotal judgment in Fund v SARS (VAT 22558) [2025] ZATC CPT, confirming that the Legal Practitioners Fidelity Fund (“the Fund”) is entitled to deduct input Value-Added Tax (VAT) on over R150 million in professional indemnity insurance premiums.
It is well within the powers of the South African Revenue Services (SARS) to limit a taxpayer’s right to travel outside the Republic. A section in the Tax Administration Act (TAA) has a provision whereby a senior SARS official can even require for “the taxpayer to surrender his or her passport to SARS”.
On 8 April 2025, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) announced a set of updates on tax directive system changes which will impact South Africans who have already left the country or are in the process of cutting tax ties. This will come into full force on 11 April 2025.
The Employment Tax Incentive (ETI) has been a cornerstone of the government’s efforts to combat youth unemployment since its introduction on 1 January 2014. By reducing the cost of hiring young workers, the ETI has incentivized businesses to employ first-time job seekers while ensuring they receive fair wages. With the scheme extended until 28 February […]
SARS has confirmed its compliance radar is focused on both High-Wealth Individuals and taxpayers engaging in cryptocurrency related transactions for the next fiscal year! Both taxpayer segments have been a recurring collection windfall for the tax man and have once more made it onto the “Compliance Themes” to maximise revenue collection, per SARS’ Revenue Announcement […]
SARS confirmed record highs on a number of fronts in its Revenue Announcement which took place on 01 April 2025. This included taxpayer compliance behaviour, improved voluntary compliance, and SARS employee engagement levels. Most notably however is SARS’ gross revenue collection, being a staggering R2,303 trillion, at the end of March 2025!
Consumers should not be caught off guard on 1 May 2025 when the higher VAT rate kicks in, as it may happen that they pay more for a product at the till or point of purchase than what the individual product price ticket indicates.
A misunderstanding of certain sections in the Income Tax Act has many South Africans who moved abroad and ceased tax residency, worried that they will also be liable to pay Capital Gains Tax (CGT) on the withdrawal of their retirement funds, in addition to the tax levied as per SARS’ Tax Tables.
On 14 March 2025, South Africa published a significant amendment to its VAT regulations on electronic services, set to take effect on 1 April 2025. This revision impacts foreign non-resident suppliers and local businesses relying on cross-border digital services. Notably, the amendment alters the definition of “electronic services” to exclude certain business-to-business (B2B) transactions from […]
Many South African expatriates have unknowingly missed out on paying lower taxes in South Africa for years while living abroad, due to confusing or misguided advice that they must reside outside the country for a number of years before officially ceasing tax residency in South Africa.