The SA Revenue Service (Sars) on Tuesday said it had exceeded its provisional revenue target for the 2023/24 financial year by almost R10bn, but also saw the highest quantum of refunds since its establishment in 1997.
Sars managed to collect R1.74-trillion in net revenue as at the end of March 2024, up 3.2% from the previous year and almost R10bn more than the revised estimate of R1.73-trillion.
Sars recorded gross receipts collected of more than R2.15-trillion, while refund payments amounted to almost R414bn, the highest in the tax collector’s history.
Refunds represented about 6% of GDP.
Sars directed R120bn of refunds to small and medium businesses and R37bn to individual taxpayers.
“This is good when businesses and individuals remain cash-strapped. Refunds are often a form of funding during troubled times,” Sars commissioner Edward Kieswetter said after announcing the country's preliminary revenue outcome for the 2023/24 financial year.
But Kieswetter was concerned about fraud in the refund system.
“While we are pleased that the R414bn returned into the hands of taxpayers is good for the economy, I remain concerned about fraud and abuse of our refund system,” he said.
Sars prevented the outflow of R101bn of impermissible or fraudulent refunds in the period under review and secured a number of successful fraud prosecutions, Kieswetter added.
“So you can imagine, R101bn would not be in the fiscus. It would be in the hands of criminals and fraudsters if we had not built our capability in fraud risk detection.”
Sars said the refund risk “remains stubbornly high” and it is focused on managing this. VAT refunds accounted for the greatest contribution to refunds made, amounting to almost R343bn for the period, up R23.9bn and 7.5% from the comparative previous period.
Sars has increased its focus on augmenting refund verification with AI-enabled fraud risk detection method tools due to the growing risk of VAT fraud. This prevented the outflow of impermissible and/or fraudulent refunds of R55.3bn in VAT.
The collector secured 81 guilty convictions of which 23 were in the category of organised refund fraud, Kieswetter said after speaking on VAT refunds.
Since its inception, the administration has collected R21.5-trillion in taxes during the course of South Africa’s democracy. Revenue collections have jumped from R114bn in 1994/95 at a compounded annual growth rate of 9.9%, and an average tax-to-GPD ratio of 22.2%, Kieswetter said.
“To put this in perspective, our collections over the last four business days this fiscal year amounted to R114bn or the total collected in the entire first year of our democracy,” he said.
Welcome R10bn bonus as Sars takes in net revenue of R1.74-trillion
Refunds also at record high — R120bn to SMEs and R37bn to individual taxpayers
Image: Ruvan Boshoff
The SA Revenue Service (Sars) on Tuesday said it had exceeded its provisional revenue target for the 2023/24 financial year by almost R10bn, but also saw the highest quantum of refunds since its establishment in 1997.
Sars managed to collect R1.74-trillion in net revenue as at the end of March 2024, up 3.2% from the previous year and almost R10bn more than the revised estimate of R1.73-trillion.
Sars recorded gross receipts collected of more than R2.15-trillion, while refund payments amounted to almost R414bn, the highest in the tax collector’s history.
Refunds represented about 6% of GDP.
Sars directed R120bn of refunds to small and medium businesses and R37bn to individual taxpayers.
“This is good when businesses and individuals remain cash-strapped. Refunds are often a form of funding during troubled times,” Sars commissioner Edward Kieswetter said after announcing the country's preliminary revenue outcome for the 2023/24 financial year.
But Kieswetter was concerned about fraud in the refund system.
“While we are pleased that the R414bn returned into the hands of taxpayers is good for the economy, I remain concerned about fraud and abuse of our refund system,” he said.
Sars prevented the outflow of R101bn of impermissible or fraudulent refunds in the period under review and secured a number of successful fraud prosecutions, Kieswetter added.
“So you can imagine, R101bn would not be in the fiscus. It would be in the hands of criminals and fraudsters if we had not built our capability in fraud risk detection.”
Sars said the refund risk “remains stubbornly high” and it is focused on managing this. VAT refunds accounted for the greatest contribution to refunds made, amounting to almost R343bn for the period, up R23.9bn and 7.5% from the comparative previous period.
Sars has increased its focus on augmenting refund verification with AI-enabled fraud risk detection method tools due to the growing risk of VAT fraud. This prevented the outflow of impermissible and/or fraudulent refunds of R55.3bn in VAT.
The collector secured 81 guilty convictions of which 23 were in the category of organised refund fraud, Kieswetter said after speaking on VAT refunds.
Since its inception, the administration has collected R21.5-trillion in taxes during the course of South Africa’s democracy. Revenue collections have jumped from R114bn in 1994/95 at a compounded annual growth rate of 9.9%, and an average tax-to-GPD ratio of 22.2%, Kieswetter said.
“To put this in perspective, our collections over the last four business days this fiscal year amounted to R114bn or the total collected in the entire first year of our democracy,” he said.
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