South African Revenue Service
25°46′22.06″S 28°13′56.13″E / 25.7727944°S 28.2322583°EThe South African Revenue Service (SARS) is the revenue service of the South African government. It administers the country's tax system and customs service, and enforces compliance with related legislation.[2] It is governed by the SARS Act 34 of 1997, which established it as "an organ of state within the public administration, but as an institution outside the public service."[1] It thus has a significant degree of administrative autonomy, although it is under the policy control of the Minister of Finance.[1] Effectively, SARS manages, administers, and implements the tax regime as designed by the Minister and National Treasury.
This article is about the South African tax agency. For other uses, see SARS (disambiguation).Agency overview
1 October 1997
- Department of Inland Revenue
- Department of Customs and Excise
Lehae la Sars Building
Pretoria, South Africa
12 479 (2020/21)[1]
- Edward Kieswetter, Commissioner
SARS was established in 1997 by a merger of the customs and inland revenue departments, at the recommendation of the Katz Commission, which had been instituted to review the South African tax system for the post-apartheid era. In subsequent years, under the leadership of Pravin Gordhan, SARS gained a reputation for effectiveness.[3][4][5][6] However, between 2014 and 2018, the agency's tax collection and investigative capacities were severely undermined, or even "decimated,"[7] as a result of a restructuring which has been called a "premeditated offensive,"[8] allegedly calculated to enable the capture of SARS.[9][10][11][12] Such allegations were investigated by the 2018 Nugent Commission.
In terms of the SARS Act, the main functions of SARS are to:[13]
Among others, SARS administers the personal income tax, corporate income tax, capital gains tax, value-added tax, customs and excise duties, skills development levies, environmental levies, unemployment insurance fund contributions, and employment tax incentives.[3][14]
History[edit]
Predecessors[edit]
The Union of South Africa came into existence on 31 May 1910, uniting the Cape Colony, Transvaal Colony, Colony of Natal, and Orange River Colony. Three months later, on 9 August, the Governor-General, Herbert Gladstone, retroactively appointed Joseph Clerc Sheridan, Esq., as the acting Commissioner for Inland Revenue with effect from 1 July 1910.[15] Two days later, on 11 August, the Department of Inland Revenue was established under the control and direction the Minister of Finance. The Department of Inland Revenue was charged with "the duty of properly collecting and duly accounting for all revenues of the Union other than railway and harbour revenues and the revenues which by law or regulation are accounted for by the Commissioner for Customs and Excise or by the Postmaster-General."[16]
On 1 July 2020, SARS completed its transition to a new and flatter organisational structure, based around four "clusters":[1]