SARS records R71.2bn more in revenue

The SA Revenue Service (SARS) collected R813.8 billion in revenue last year.

According to the 2013 Tax Statistics publication, tabled by Sars and National Treasury on Monday, this was R71.2bn more than during the 2011/12 fiscal year.

Highlights from the document include:

• Personal Income Tax, including PAYE, totalled R276.7bn (31.4 percent of revenue collected). A total of 15.4 million individuals were registered, of whom 5,881,019 were liable to submit returns;
• Company Income Tax collected during 2012/13 amounted to R160.9 billion (26.7 percent of revenue). This involved 2.2m registered companies, of which 742,448 were liable to submit returns;
• Value-Added Tax (VAT) netted R215bn (24.7 percent of revenue); and,
• Import VAT and other customs duties collected totalled R39bn.

According to the document, the tax-to-GDP ration increased marginally from 25 percent in 2011/12, to 25.3 percent last year (2012/13).

"This is close to the long-term average, but well below the peaks of more than 27 percent reached before the [2008/9] financial crisis."

The individual tax register grew strongly.

"The number of individuals registered for income tax as at March 31 [this year] increased by 1.7m (12.5 percent), from 13.7m in the previous year to 15.4m."

On the same date, there were nearly 2.2m registered companies, of which 800,000 were liable to submit returns, and nearly 700,000 registered VAT vendors.