SARS 'confident' of collecting enough outstanding arrear debt to PREVENT tax increases in 2026

Robust debt collection by the South African Revenue Service (SARS) could spare South Africans from a tax increase at the start of 2026.

Delivering the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) or 'mini budget', Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana announced that SARS had exceeded its revenue estimate by R18 billion.

He said National Treasury would continue to monitor SARS’s revenue performance for the remainder of the year, which would inform whether the proposed R20 billion in additional tax increases for the 2026 Budget, could be withdrawn.

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It would appear that the additional R4 billion allocated to the Revenue Service to strengthen debt collection in the 2025 Budget, has paid off.

This extra funding was aimed at increasing revenue collected, by between R20 and R50 billion per year.

SARS Commissioner Edward Kieswetter says their increased revenue can be ascribed to a number of factors, including higher-than-expected contributions in corporate taxes and dividend taxes.

However, just more than half of the money came from their own compliance efforts, he notes.

Kieswetter says SARS is confident about delivering the extra R20bn to R50 billion required for a revision of 2026 tax hikes.

At the same time, he says the next tranche of debt they are targeting for repayment now, is more 'complex' debt than their first cohort of the year.  

"The R35 million that we collected was debt that required a follow-up call, an SMS reminder, a gentle nudge here and there... The debt we're getting to now requires people with a higher level of skill - people who can analyse financial statements, to look at whether companies actually can afford the debt if they don't disupte it."

They've seen an increase in applications for debt deferment payment arrangements, Kieswetter says, so to chase the money they need professionals like litigation attorneys and legal debt collectors.

SARS has already employed about 80 people to look at this more specialised debt collection and is hoping to ramp that up to 250.

Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the interviews with National Treasury DG Duncan Pieterse and SARS Commissioner Edward Kieswetter (at 7:24)