Public Sector Leaders | May 2022

Page 38

SARS BY ALEXANDRA KOTCHOUBEI

#YourTaxMatters

A 2022 SARS Success Story

C

elebrating their 25th anniversary on Friday, 1 April 2022, SARS Commissioner Mr. Edward Kieswetter announced the preliminary tax revenue collection outcome for 2021/2022 yielding fantastic results as they reached a new record high. Collecting just over R1.56-trillion during the 2021/22 financial year, this was a 25.1% increase from the previous tax year. This was slightly higher than the estimated budget and indicates that South Africa has not only recovered after COVID-19 but the growth was 15% higher than what was seen in the year preCOVID. The gross tax revenue totalled R1.885-trillion, and they have refunded R321.1-billion to

taxpayers, resulting in the net revenue outcome of R1.563-trillion. In an interview with SABC News, Commissioner Kiewswetter praised the over 12 500 employees at SARS saying that although they still have a long way to go, these positive results come from them being more focused and diligent and it is encouraging to see the steady progress that they are making rebuilding the institution. This also shows their commitment to improving the professional behaviour of their own staff, even when it comes to rooting out any form of corruption within their own institution or otherwise that could defraud the system.

In Mr. Kieswetter's revenue announcement he reminded us of the SARS Vision 2024 that commenced in 2020 saying, “based on the clear strategic intent of voluntary compliance and progressing towards building a smart, modern SARS with unquestionable integrity that is trusted & admired.” Many have formulated a negative relationship to taxes and so it’s important to be reminded of what our tax goes towards. Since its inception, more than R17.82-trillion has been collected by SARS. Over the past 25 years tax net revenue collections have grown considerably with more than a

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