South African Revenue Service (SARS) Commissioner Johnstone Makhubu says that the revenue service would rather pay out tax refunds
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South African Revenue Service (SARS) Commissioner Johnstone Makhubu says that the revenue service would rather pay out tax refunds during filing season, even if it means paying out more money than it collects.
Makhubu said that filing season is a period where SARS becomes a net payer because large numbers of taxpayers submit claims for refunds at the same time, adding that during the last tax season, the revenue service paid out around R40 billion.
"The filing season is really a net cashout flow, we rarely collect much revenue during this season. We would rather pay out a lot. We indicated that from July through to January last year, we paid around R40 billion during this time," he said.
He added that the R40 billion paid out to taxpayers has a wider economic impact because it flows back into households and businesses.
"We think it's important that we do our work well because R40 billion in the hands of citizens has a multiplier effect, and therefore I'm convinced that as tax administration we need to pay legitimate refunds as quickly as possible in a seamless manner because that money goes to spur the economy even further. We pay out more during this time than we actually receive".
IOL also previously reported that the Revenue Service (SARS) expects to auto-assess about six million taxpayers during filing season 2026.
Speaking during the launch of filing season on Thursday, SARS Commissioner Dr Johnstone Makhubu said the revenue service has expanded its auto-assessment programme and will include an additional 200,000 provisional taxpayers with relatively simple tax affairs.
"David is one of those that would belong to the six million odd that we have estimated will be auto-assessed this year. David doesn't have to do anything. From July 1 to July 12, he would belong into a batched population," Makhubu said while explaining one of four taxpayer personas developed by SARS to illustrate the filing process.
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