SARS Surpasses Expected Revenue Target by R63 Billion, Reports Reveal

Monday, April 05, 2021 at 1:14 PM by Reeshni Chetty

- The South African Revenue Services has reportedly surpassed the revenue target set last year

- SARS managed to collect R1.25 trillion after the target was revised to R1.112 trillion last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic

- The original budget sat at R1.212 trillion, thus making the total amount collect R63 billion higher than the revised target

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The South African Revenue Services (SARS) has exceeded the revenue collection target set in February last year. The original target of R1.21 trillion was exceeded by R38 billion by 31 March.

The National Treasury first set the target at R1.425 trillion before Covid-19 impacted the economy in March last year. The target was revised down to R1.112 trillion in October before being increased to R1.212 trillion in this year's budget, delivered in February.

During the financial period, a total of R63 billion has been collected. This total includes R12 billion from large businesses and R16 billion from provisional taxpayers.

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SA collects R1.25 in taxes for the 2020/21 year says SARS — The South African Revenue Service (Sars) has defeated the odds by exceeding the revenue collection target set last year. Image: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg
Source: Getty Images

According to a report published by News24, SARS linked the success to a combination of improved economic activity; higher collections of company tax, especially among mining companies; and greater tax compliance.

A report by Moneyweb revealed that SARS has widened the tax base by 1.6 million newly-registered taxpayers. This total is mostly a combination of pay-as-you-earn (PAYE), VAT and personal income tax.

This harvested R5.8 billion resulting in a collected revenue of R4.4 billion from these new taxpayers after refunds were issued.

In similar news, Briefly.co.za previously reported on Finance Minister Tito Mboweni's budget speech. The Finance Minister spoke on various topics including fuel levies, excise tax and social grants

Mboweni also touched on the South African Revenue Services. According to the Minister of Finance, SARS will be improving its technology, data and machine learning capabilities in this financial year.