SARS Collects More Tax Revenue Than Estimated, R1 249 Billion Collected

• Finance Minister Enoch Gondogwana says the South African Revenue Service has managed to go above its initial targets
• The minister says the tax revenue agency managed to collect R37.5 billion more than what was estimated for the 2020/2021 financial year
• Although South Africa continues to have an issue with compliance activity, Sars managed to collect R171 billion

JOHANNESBURG - The South African Revenue Service has had a great year of tax collection for the financial year of 2020/2021.

Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana says SARS managed to collect R1 249 billion in the past financial year.

Godongwana explained in the SARS annual report which was presented to parliament, that what was collected by SARS is R37.5 billion more than what was initially estimated, according to a report by SABC News.

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Despite a difficult year, Godongwana says SARS fought hard to safeguard the fiscal capacity and sovereignty that had been established during the previous 27 years.

SARS also went over the estimated R93 billion revenue from its direct compliance activity which amounted to R171 billion. R78 billion more than what was initially estimated.

Despite SARS going beyond the collections from direct compliance activity, Godongwana says there is still an issue with tax compliance in the country.

SARS set to destroy illegal cigarette cargo

The unlawful cargo of 1 032 cartons of cigarettes worth R20 million that were seized at the Durban harbour will be destroyed by Sars.

According to IOL, Sars issued a statement in which it said the cigarette cargo that was seized was not in compliance with the requirements stipulated by the South African government.

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The cargo did not have the approved SA diamond stamp and the agency says the health warnings were written in a language that was not English. Sars also found that the details of the importer were fake.

Sars is set to destroy the cargo on Thursday, 7 October.

Last month, the agency confiscated unlawful molasse and illegal cigarettes valued at R400 000 in Fordsburg, Johannesburg at three different shops.

SARS hammers down on South Africans looking to use cryptocurrency as a tax loophole

Briefly News previously reported that South Africans could see the South African Revenue Service (SARS) striving for legal action in response to individuals who fail to pay tax on their cryptocurrency profits.

The warning to South Africans looking to find a tax loophole through crypto-currency was issued by Thomas Lobban, the legal manager for cross-border taxation at Tax Consulting South Africa.

Lobban has expressed the falsity behind the assumption that crypto-asset transactions are untraceable and cannot be picked up by SARS. The beginning of 2021 saw SARS distributing audit requests to taxpayers asking them to disclose any cryptocurrency activity that affects their income.

Source: Briefly News