Sars enforcement: the new era of tax compliance

THE South African Revenue Service (Sars) is no longer the passive revenue service many South Africans remember. With the injection of R3.5 billion from the national budget and the ominous launch of “Project AmaBillions,” Sars has entered its most aggressive phase of enforcement in years and is quickly turning into one of the most sophisticated, assertive, and unrelenting revenue authorities in the world.

- ANDRÉ DANIELS

Welcome to the new high-stakes era of tax compliance, which marks the end of the era of any perceived leniency. It is now the time of relentless enforcement. If you've received a surprise assessment or an additional tax bill, doing nothing could be financially and legally disastrous.

Sars has flipped the switch: compliance or consequences

South Africa's budget is strained, and Sars has one clear mandate: collect at all costs. The days of informal engagement are over. Today, Sars is functioning as a well-resourced enforcement agency, driven by targets and backed by increasingly automated systems that flag non-compliance in real-time.

There’s a process