1.1 How the Tax System Works in South Africa (Start Here)

Every business in South Africa deals with tax, whether or not it makes a profit. It pays tax on its own income, charges tax to its customers, deducts tax from its employees and some suppliers, and pays duty on what it imports. Tax compliance means meeting all of these duties correctly and on time, and being able to prove it.

The main types of business tax

• Taxes on income: income tax on the profits of companies, partnerships and sole traders.
• Taxes on consumption: VAT and excise duties, charged on goods and services and passed on in the price.
• Taxes on trade and transactions: customs duty on imports, and taxes on transfers of property, shares or other assets.
• Taxes withheld at source: tax deducted from payments such as salaries, dividends, interest, rent and fees, and paid to the authority on behalf of the person who receives the payment.

PAYE, UIF and the Skills Development Levy are covered in the companion course, Payroll Administration in South Africa.

Two roles: taxpayer and collector

A business plays two different roles:

• Taxpayer: it pays its own taxes, such as income tax on its profits and duty on its imports. These are costs of the business.
• Collecting agent: it collects other people’s taxes for the state. It charges VAT to customers, deducts employee tax from salaries and withholds tax from certain payments to suppliers and investors.

Money collected as an agent is not the business’s money. It is held in trust until it is paid over. Tax authorities treat a failure to pay over collected tax more seriously than an error in the business’s own tax, and in many countries the directors and officers can be held personally responsible for it.

Self-assessment

In most modern systems, including South Africa’s, the business calculates its own tax, files the return and pays. SARS checks later, through data matching, desk reviews and audits, sometimes several years after the return was filed. An accepted return is not an approved return. The business must be able to support every figure for as long as the authority can reopen it.

The compliance cycle

1. Register for each tax that applies, before the obligation starts.
2. Record every transaction with a supporting document.
3. Calculate the tax using the law that applied at the time.
4. File each return by its due date.
5. Pay in full by the due date and keep the proof.
6. Keep the records for the period the law requires.
7. Respond promptly and in writing to queries, audits and assessments.

The rest of this course follows this cycle.

Avoidance and evasion

Tax planning uses the choices the law offers, such as claiming every allowance due or choosing an available regime. Tax evasion is deliberately understating tax by hiding income, inventing expenses or keeping false records, and it is a crime. Between them lies aggressive avoidance: arrangements that follow the letter of the law but defeat its purpose. Anti-avoidance rules allow SARS to disregard such arrangements. Lesson 5.4 returns to this.

The tax year

A company’s year of assessment is its financial year, so a company with a June year-end is assessed on the year to 30 June. It can change its year-end only with SARS’s approval, on reasonable grounds. Individuals use a tax year from 1 March to the end of February, which is why many tax figures change on 1 March.

How figures are used in this course

Tax rates, thresholds, deadlines and penalties in the lessons are examples of the law as at 2026. They are not permanent rules: South Africa changes its tax law through the annual Budget, Finance Acts, regulations and official notices. All the figures are gathered in a Course reference table at the end of lesson 5.4, dated so you can see how old they are.

Before you file a return or make a decision that depends on a figure, confirm it through official channels.

Example: Hlanganani Auto Parts (Pty) Ltd, a Durban dealer, pays provisional tax twice a year, files VAT returns every two months, runs a monthly payroll, withholds dividends tax when it pays its owners a dividend, and pays duty and import VAT on parts from Japan. The financial manager, Lerato Dlamini, owns income tax, VAT and customs checks; the payroll officer owns the EMP201. The company is a taxpayer for income tax and duty, and a collector for VAT, PAYE and dividends tax.

Check before you act: Figures and time limits here are 2026 examples, not fixed rules, and are expected to change. Confirm the current position with SARS (including SARS Customs and Excise), National Treasury, the Government Gazette or a registered tax practitioner.

Key takeaway

A business is both a taxpayer and a tax collector. Under self-assessment it calculates, files and pays on its own, so it must keep the law current, meet every deadline and be able to prove every figure.