{"id":843494,"date":"2025-11-17T14:40:01","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T12:40:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=843494"},"modified":"2025-11-17T14:44:04","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T12:44:04","slug":"edward-kieswetter-scores-r1-trillion-haul-for-sars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/843494\/edward-kieswetter-scores-r1-trillion-haul-for-sars\/","title":{"rendered":"Edward Kieswetter scores R1 trillion haul for SARS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Edward Kieswetter has collected over R1.1 trillion in compliance revenue during his time as Commissioner of the South African Revenue Services (SARS), having been instrumental in rebuilding this capacity following the destructive state capture years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to SARS’s annual report for 2024\/25, the revenue service collected R304 billion in compliance revenue for the year, up from the R260.5 billion collected in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compliance revenue refers to the money brought in from SARS’s various compliance activities, where it specifically targets taxpayers and industries operating outside the tax regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This capacity was fundamentally gutted during the tenure of Kieswetter’s predecessor, Tom Moyane, who managed the tax service during the so-called ‘state capture’ era, where billions of rands were effectively looted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kieswetter was appointed as SARS commissioner in 2019, and his contract was expected to run through to April 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, due to his remarkable success in turning the tax agency around, President Cyril Ramaphosa extended his contract for two more years, now set to end in 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of Kieswetter’s vision for SARS, the tax agency was to adopt a mainline tax strategy to make compliance cheap and easy, while making non-compliance incredibly difficult and costly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This led to the adoption of new technologies, such as machine learning and AI, to automate tax filing\u2014including the successful auto-assessment process\u2014while establishing and re-establishing various specialist tax units to target specific groups of taxpayers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This includes the high-net-worth unit, crypto unit and various business units. These specialist units pushed SARS’s compliance initiatives, while its beefed-up legal team tackled the illicit market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This push from SARS proved vital for South Africa as a whole, as the country had and has hit a limit on new tax measures it could plausibly implement to boost tax revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With little to no scope to squeeze legitimate and compliant taxpayers for more money, SARS’s focus has turned to the dark corners of the economy where non-compliant taxpayers are hiding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Kieswetter, there is about R500 billion to R800 billion hidden in these spaces that are taxes owed, and his goal has been to sniff these billions out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over R1 trillion already collected<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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SARS’s 2000 to 2025 end-of-term report shows that the group’s compliance measures over the years have yielded additional collections of R1.14 trillion for the fiscus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This reflects a compound annual growth rate of 19% over the period, with 2024\/25 showing the largest haul to date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The compliance revenue is broken up into specific activities, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n