JOHANNESBURG: The SA Revenue Service (SARS) announced a R1.144 trillion preliminary outcome on Monday for revenue collection for the 20176/17 tax year.
This means that SARS broke the trillion rand mark for the second year in a row, in gross terms standing at R1.367 trillion. SARS said this outcome was fractionally or only R300,000 above the revised estimate as announced in the 2017 Budget.
For the 2016/17 financial year, net revenue grew by 7.0 percent contrasted with a growth in refunds of 9.5 percent year-on-year.
Personal income tax, corporate income tax, and VAT along with Customs and Excise, in aggregate remained the largest sources of tax revenue and represented about 94.5 percent of total tax revenue collections.
Personal income tax collections of R426.0 billion were 9.4 percent higher against the previous year by R36.7 billion mainly due to Pay As You Earn payments.
The financial services sector remained the largest contributor to total net revenue at 49.7 percent, followed by the community and social services, and manufacturing sectors with contributions of 15.3 percent and 10.5 percent respectively.
In aggregate, SARS paid out R222.4 billion in refunds.
A total of R23.0 billion was paid in personal income tax refunds, reflecting a 10.7 percent increase on the prior year. Corporate income tax refunds totaled R13.0 billion, representing about R2.2bn, or 20.7 percent increase in pay outs compared to the prior year.
SARS said this resulted in a concomitant downward revision in the revenue estimate from R1.175 trillion in February 2016 to R1.144 trillion in February 2017, a downward revision of R30 billion.
Looking ahead, SARS said it expected the domestic economy to improve to GDP growth levels of about 1.2 percent based on emerging rebound in commodity prices, the relatively stable international rand exchange rate, low production stoppages associated with industrial disputes, and the recent heavy rainfall that brought relief to the agricultural sector.
SARS said these green shoots would assist it in the revenue collection drive towards the attainment of the printed estimate for the 2017/18 financial year of R1.266 trillion, a required uplift of 10.5 percent over the current year.
