Tax

As the SARS collection process becomes more technologically advanced, tax practitioners must advise clients to avoid tax evasion and remain compliant. SARS will soon become so efficient at detecting tax evasion and recovering hidden revenues, it will no longer be worth it to lie on returns.

Much confusion and debate seems to exist in the market regarding the changes to the access to retirement benefits (pension preservation funds, provident preservation funds and retirement annuity funds) on emigration. The concept of ‘emigration’ and the SARS approval process (via MP336b) falls away from 1 March 2021 and is replaced with the concept of an individual ‘ceasing to be a resident for tax purpose’ in South Africa.

Every Budget is preceded and followed by the mantra that the Finance Minister faced serious challenges. No, that is never true. All Budgets are easy and straight forward. If they promote prosperity, then countries, including governments and the poor, get rich. All that’s needed is for Budgets to raise rather than lower economic freedom scores – more freedom, more prosperity; less freedom, more poverty. It is that simple.

In August 2020, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) introduced auto assessments which provided them with the ability to file income tax returns on behalf of taxpayers. These auto assessments are populated from a taxpayer’s information which is collected from third parties such as financial institutions, employers, and medical aid schemes.

When the minister of finance delivered Budget 2020/21 on 26 February 2020, COVID-19 was mostly contained to China (with other countries registering few cases). The budget therefore made virtually no provision for what was to become one of the largest health and economic meltdowns in the past 90 years. As such, except for the growing fiscal deficit, the main and consolidated budgets[1] contained no earth-shattering announcements.

Taxpayers were listening very closely as Tito Mboweni delivered his annual budget speech. Taxpayers can however breathe a sigh of relief as no increases in tax rates will be incurred despite a year of national lockdown and the roll out of the vaccine.

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s budget has been received very positively, as demonstrated by the reaction from markets. SA Inc companies have rallied, the rand initially strengthened, and even the bond market is acting positively. However, while there are notes of hope, this budget also demonstrates a number of key risks, overly optimistic assumptions and potential weaknesses, pointing to an extremely challenging path ahead for the country.

Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni delivered his Budget Speech 2021 to Parliament on Wednesday, February 24. This document provides an overview of key information relating to the economic outlook, government revenue and expenditure, fiscal balance, and the public debt trajectory.

The Minister of Finance tabled a surprizing – yet resoundingly positive – budget on 24 February 2021.

The 2021 Budget was tabled to Parliament on 24 February 2021 by South African Finance Minister Tito Mboweni.