Sars beats expectations by collecting R1.855 trillion in 2024/25 tax year

Sars collected a record gross amount of R2.303 trillion in the 2024/25 tax year, 6.9% more than the previous year. It also paid refunds of R447.7 billion to taxpayers, the highest-ever amount.

These amounts represent a net amount of R1.855 trillion, almost R8.8 billion higher than the revised estimate, and R114 billion more than last year’s R1.741 trillion.

Edward Kieswetter, commissioner of the South African Revenue Service (Sars), announced the preliminary outcome of revenue collection figures for 2024/25 in Pretoria on Tuesday.

While net personal income tax (including interest) was estimated to grow at 13.8% in Budget 2024, by 12.3% in the medium-term budget policy statement (MTBPS) and by 12.9% in Budget 2025, net personal income tax grew by R81.8 billion (12.6%), which Kieswetter said could be partly attributed to above-inflation growth in the finance and community sectors’ pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) tax, as well as the gains from two-pot retirement system withdrawals.

Sars received 2 805 727 applications for tax directives for the two-pot withdrawals and finalised 2 535 252 for a gross lump sum of R47.70 billion that delivered R11.87 billion in tax revenue. Sars also managed to collect tax debt of R820 million through these withdrawals.

ALSO READ: Sars records increase in taxpayers who filed returns

Corporate income tax grew by R6.5bn and VAT by R10.5bn

The assumption for net company income tax was -3.3% in Budget 2024, 0.4% in the MTBPS and 1.1% in Budget 2025. Kieswetter said net company income tax grew by R6.5 billion (2.1%), driven by provisional tax collections of R323.3 billion, which were R10.5 billion (3.3%) higher than in the previous tax year and exceeded the Budget 2025 estimate by R4.3 billion (1.4%).

According to Kieswetter, this growth was mainly thanks to the finance sector, which was buoyed by improved profits, while the mining sector continued to contract.

Net VAT, which contributed 24.7% of total collections, grew by R10.5 billion (2.3%) while the assumption for VAT refunds was growth of 7.6% in Budget 2024, 6.7% in the MTBPS and 7.2% in Budget 2025.

At the end of March 2025, VAT refunds amounted to R365.5 billion, R22.5 billion (6.6%) more tha the previous year. The top three refunded sectors were mining, finance and manufacturing. Kieswetter pointed out that preliminary indications show Sars avoided leakage worth R74.0 billion (R60.7 billion a year before), predominantly thanks to syndicated-crimes investigation, investigative audits and tax verifications.

ALSO READ: Despite sharp decline in company tax, Sars collects R1.7 trillion

Sars compliance programme brought in R301.5bn

The Sars compliance programme interventions generated R301.5 billion in compliance revenue, 15.8% more than the previous year. Kieswetter said a portion of this revenue could be attributed to cash-collection initiatives, amounting to R154.8 billion, while strategies to prevent revenue leakage contributed another R146.7 billion.

Efforts and outcomes from Sars’s administrative activities included:

• R94 billion from resolving over 3.7 million outstanding debt cases
• R103 billion from tax verifications where the risks were flagged through Sars’ AI driven risk profiling models, executing 1.7 million verifications cases
• R59 billion from executing 230 000 tax and customs compliance audits
• R30 billion from syndicated crime after Sars conducted 198 complex investigations, made up of 165 Illicit investigations and 33 connected with state capture
• R15 billion from general compliance work after 870 000 compliance follow ups
• 20 million service-related interactions at Sars branches, on phone calls or through Sars’ digital self-service platforms assisting taxpayers and traders to comply.

ALSO READ: Sars collects R1.741 trillion in tax, R10 billion more than estimated

Sars’ enhanced strategies and compliance measures

Kieswetter said the increase in revenue can be attributed to enhanced strategies and the diligent implementation of compliance measures. “This remarkable achievement underscores Sars’ commitment to rigorous compliance and our ability to drive revenue-collection growth through strategic interventions.”

Last year nearly 5 million taxpayers benefited from auto assessments when Sars reconciled their tax affairs with an uptake of more than 98%, with those who made actual changes representing less than 1%.

Taxpayers who were due refunds received them within 72 hours, while those who opted to file their returns received an outcome in five seconds.

Kieswetter pointed out that the minister of finance set a Sars revenue estimate of R2.006 trillion for the 2025/26 tax year. “We will spare no efforts in rising to this challenge,” he said.

According to Kieswetter, almost 16 million people in South Africa are formally employed, with 8 million earning salaries below the tax threshold, while the other 8 million earn enough to pay tax. Of this 8 million, 570 000 earn above R1 million per year, which means that this segment pays 48% of all personal income tax.