Insider knowledge abused: ex-SARS auditor jailed for fabricated VAT claims
The former SARS employee and tax practitioner submitted false VAT returns and forged documents that led to R1.58m in improper refunds.
#valueaddedtax
Schools’ exit VAT liability postponed for a year
VAT-registered schools will have to deregister from 1 January 2026, but the deemed output VAT on retained assets will only be payable the following year.
Treasury withdraws plan to tax foreign pensions, pledges wider consultation
Although the amendment will not proceed, Treasury remains concerned about double non-taxation and will re-engage with the industry to find a balanced approach.
Treasury downplays impact of schools’ forced VAT deregistration
ISASA says there has always been a distinction between exempt (educational) and taxable (commercial) supplies.
Treat your tax refund as your money returned – not a bonus
Every rand overpaid to SARS is an opportunity cost. Allocate refunds to debt repayment, savings, or retirement contributions for greater long-term benefit.
SA residents face taxation on previously untaxed foreign pension benefits
The amendment treats foreign pension benefits like other residence-sourced income, shifting the retirement planning landscape for South Africans who worked overseas.
VAT-registered schools may face cashflow shock
The proposed blanket exemptions for goods and services supplied by schools will force VAT-registered schools to deregister and lose input-tax recovery.
Sticky VAT thresholds create ‘economic distortion’
Tax specialists say stagnant thresholds have the opposite effect of policy aims – instead of freeing SMEs to scale up, they incentivise remaining under the threshold.
SCA confirms validity of a tax opinion when it is correct in fact and law
Supreme Court rejects SARS’s argument that the expert’s opinion was tainted by self-interest because of the fee he would earn.
Beefed-up SARS might stave off R20bn in tax increases in 2026
An inflation-linked rise in the general fuel levy will in no way be sufficient to plug the revenue hole left by scrapping the two VAT increases.
SCA upholds pre-commencement tax debts in business rescue
The Supreme Court of Appeal confirms that re-quantifying a tax debt post-rescue commencement doesn’t create a new, preferential liability – cementing SARS’s place as a concurrent creditor under an approved rescue plan.
Constitutionality of the minister’s power to amend tax rates remains untested
UCT tax lecturer Ben Cronin argues that by allowing the minister to amend the income tax rates by announcement in the Budget, Parliament has overstepped its competence, eroding the doctrine that places legislative authority firmly in its hands.
Budget 3.0 coming after court-backed VAT suspension and new Rates Bill
SARS tells vendors there is now no legal basis for them to charge consumers VAT of 15.5% from 1 May.
Tax Court faults SARS in R158m VAT case over legal insurance fund
SARS’s stance on input VAT was overturned after the court found the fund to be the principal in an insurance agreement – not merely an agent.
Godongwana says VAT court challenge is politics in legal clothing
The finance minister defends the VAT hike as an urgent fiscal necessity, warning that suspending it could blow a R13.5bn hole in the Budget.
Experts warn reversing VAT increase may be impractical
Once implemented on 1 May, undoing the VAT hike could prove nearly impossible. Even if Parliament later votes against the Rates and Monetary Amounts Bill, the logistics of refunding the collected VAT present formidable challenges.
SARS’s enhanced compliance efforts add R301.5bn to revenue
The South African Revenue Service outperformed its revised estimates for 2024/25, buoyed by strong personal income tax, VAT, and company income tax collections.
