SARS collects over R1 Trillion in tax revenue
The South African Revenue Service (SARS) collection rates have once again recorded positive growth, collecting a gross R1.55 trillion in the past year.
Addressing Parliament on Tuesday, November 10, SARS Commissioner Edward Kieswetter that this comprised of a net of R1.25 trillion of the revenue estimate and that is R38 billion more than the revised estimate.
Refunds paid amounted to R300.6 billion, which is R20 billion more than 2019/2020.
He said: “Our specific compliance interventions to detect and deter non-compliance yielded R172 billion, which shows room to improve compliance levels across all tax types”.
This dovetails with SARS’ strategic objective of making it costly for those who are willfully non-compliant.
He said SARS was encouraged by the measured progress in rebuilding SARS as an institution transforming itself into a SMART Modern SARS.
In addition, R38.9 billion had been granted in COVID-19 relief measures and trade to the value of R2.6 trillion had been facilitated in accordance with the SARS mandate.
He confirmed that tax compliance levels were under strain, with a composite compliance level of 62.61%, compared to the previous year of 65.05%. The Public Confidence Survey point to favourable preference of tax morality but that has not seen an appreciable rise in compliance.
He said the tax base was broadening with 1.6 million taxpayers added to the SARS tax register that resulted in R4.6 billion added to the net collections for the year under review.
“Our strategic objective to make it easy and simple for taxpayers to comply has also yielded impressive results: 86.3% of SARS interactions done through digital channels such as eFiling and the MobiApp”.
The Commissioner warned however that the impact and prevalence of corruption and waste was not helpful in enhancing tax morale within society.
“In addition, 83.2% of standard taxpayers (3.4 million taxpayers) had received auto-assessments based on third party data available to SARS. All taxpayers needed to do was to click accept or edit.
“The effectiveness of these channels are also indicated by the fact that R1.55 trillion was collected via eFiling,” he said.