BY Amy Musgrave
The SA Revenue Service collected R1.855 trillion of tax in the financial year ending 31 March, according to preliminary figures released on Tuesday.
SARS commissioner Edward Kieswetter said this was 6% higher than the previous financial year, when it collected R1.74 trillion.
He said the collections from the finance, community, wholesale and construction sectors were robust, contributing to the 6.1% year-on-year growth in revenue collections (2024/25) and 4.4% in GDP (2025).
Although a less substantial increase year on year, taxes earned through value-added tax (VAT) were the second biggest contributor to the outcome, followed by company income tax.
Also, personal income tax saw significant gains, which were partly due to the new two-pot pension reform. It allows fund members to make partial withdrawals from their pension funds before retirement to help those who are in financial distress.
Kieswetter said that R447.7 billion was returned to taxpayers, which was good for the economy.
“I, however, remain deeply concerned about the ever-present threat of refund fraud and abuse of the system,” he said in a statement.
To illustrate this, in the period under review, SARS prevented the outflow of R146.7billion of impermissible refunds.
The better-than-expected collection comes despite a weak economy, lower-than-expected wage increases and a decline in imports year on year.
“In the build-up to the momentous occasion of this revenue announcement, I made a clarion call to action to the whole SARS family regardless of whether they were in core operations, enabling, or support functions,” said Kieswetter.
“I must proudly state that they all responded resoundingly. They all went out and made calls and looked for the inches that contributed to this glorious result. I am deeply indebted to all my colleagues for rising to the challenge.”
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has set SARS a revenue estimate of R2.006 trillion for the 2025/26 financial year. Kieswetter said this conveyed confidence by the minister on SARS’s ability to meet this challenge and it would rise to the challenge.
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