SARS Pays Out Billions In Tax Refunds

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SARS tax season is well underway in South Africa with thousands of tax payers submitting tax returns. Many of these individuals are set to receive tax refunds. 


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The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has revealed that at least 191,000 South Africans have filed their tax returns as the filing season opened for provisional and non-provisional taxpayers on Monday, 15 July 2024. 

This is according to SARS Commissioner, Edward Kieswetter who was briefing the media on Tuesday.

Kieswetter reported that of the returns filed, 183,000 were submitted via SARS’ online e-filing and mobile application services, while approximately 7,700 were filed through Taxpayer Service Centres. 

SARS expects around eight million assessments to be issued by 20 January 2024, for the current tax year.

We anticipate issuing approximately eight million assessments for the 2024 tax year alone

In the first two weeks of July, five million taxpayers were auto-assessed by SARS. During this period, SARS had more than 16 million digital interactions with taxpayers, averaging one million users daily and peaking at 1.9 million on the opening day.

In total, we serviced over three million transactions across all our channels and over a million views on our website in one day,

Tax Season 2024 Dates 

  • Individual taxpayers (non-provisional): 15 July 2024 to 21 October 2024
  • Auto-assessment notices: 1 – 14 July 2024
  • Provisional taxpayers: 15 July 2024 to 20 January 2025
  • Trusts: 16 September 2024 to 20 January 2025

When You Will Get Your SARS Refunds 

Since the beginning of July 2024, SARS assessed 5.5 million taxpayers, resulting in potential refunds of R17 billion, with R10 billion already paid out. An additional R4 billion will be disbursed within 72 hours, barring any issues according to the commissioner.

Refunds may be withheld for reasons such as outstanding prior year returns, outdated banking details, detected inaccuracies, or the need for further verification.

We encourage taxpayers to resolve these outstanding issues before inquiring about their refunds

According to the commissioner, SARS utilises advanced AI and machine learning to process tax returns and detect fraud, relying on nearly 150 million third-party data records.

We're able to process over 90% of refunds for taxpayers not selected for verification within 72 hours through our fraud risk detection AI

Kieswetter says that SARS' AI tool saved the fiscus billions in fraudulent refunds last year.

This fraud detection capability prevented almost R100 billion of impermissible PIT and VAT refunds from being paid out and lost to the fiscus

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The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) is a South African government initiative that provides financial aid for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Part of the application process involves submitting a SARS consent form. 

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