Treasury downplays impact of schools’ forced VAT deregistration
ISASA says there has always been a distinction between exempt (educational) and taxable (commercial) supplies.
VAT
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.
Fuel levy rises despite court challenge, but price drop cushions blow for motorists
The fuel levy hike remains in force, but a broader court challenge over the finance minister’s power to increase taxes continues.
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.
Tight-lipped Treasury braces for tough Budget to plug R75bn shortfall
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana won’t reveal where the spending cuts or savings will come from but says South Africa must “do more with less”.
VAT hike halted – but legal uncertainty keeps SA on fiscal edge
Tax specialist Louis Botha answers pressing questions about the suspended VAT increase and its broader implications for budget-making power and taxpayer rights.
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.
Godongwana given 30 days to revise Budget after VAT reversal
The ANC and the DA present South Africans with different versions of what led to the decision to halt the increase.
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.
