Offices of the SA Revenue Service.
The South African Revenue Service (Sars) has thanked provisional taxpayers and Trusts for submitting their Income Tax Returns for the 2024 tax year- with an increase of nearly 5% in returns filed.
The filing season for these groups concluded on January 20, 2025.
Since the season’s opening, 543 252 provisional taxpayers have filed their returns, marking a 4.76% increase from the 517 356 in 2023. In addition, 162 690 provisional taxpayers filed overdue returns from previous years, a decrease from 242 911 the year before. The total number of provisional taxpayers who filed for the 2024 tax year thus stands at 705 942.
Trusts saw an even more impressive rise, with 84 134 submitting their returns, compared to 68 890 in the prior year. Returns for past years also saw a significant uptick, with 80 132 Trust returns filed, bringing the overall total to 164 266.
Non-provisional taxpayers also contributed to the positive trend, with 6 797 055 individuals having filed their returns, including 4 765 753 auto-assessed taxpayers. The latter figure represents a notable 24.94% increase from the previous year, as Sars continues to leverage advanced data sources to automatically assess tax returns, simplifying the process for many taxpayers.
While the increase in compliance is encouraging, Sars Commissioner Edward Kieswetter stressed that there is still much work to be done.
Kieswetter said that “while Sars is pleased with the general increase in compliance, it is too early to declare victory. In this regard, Sars will continue to employ the latest technology, artificial intelligence, and data science to foster voluntary compliance by ensuring that transacting with the organisation is an effortless and seamless experience that will lessen compliance burden.
“This will comport with Sars’s overall mission to realise our promise that ‘the best service is no service at all’”. Sars is doing the utmost to pursue its vision of being a smart, modern Sars with unquestionable integrity that can be trusted and admired by all.
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