{"id":846607,"date":"2026-01-05T07:28:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T05:28:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=846607"},"modified":"2026-01-05T07:28:34","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T05:28:34","slug":"sars-is-coming-after-your-bank-account-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/846607\/sars-is-coming-after-your-bank-account-in-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"SARS is coming after your bank account in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) is expected to intensify its crackdown on tax non-compliance in 2026, with closer scrutiny of taxpayers\u2019 bank accounts remaining one of its most effective tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recent tax statistics and experts suggest that individuals and businesses whose lifestyles or cash flows do not match their declared income will increasingly find themselves in SARS\u2019 sights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its 2025 tax statistics highlights<\/a>, SARS reported collecting a record gross amount of R2.303 trillion during the 2024\/25 financial year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also paid out R447.3 billion in refunds, the highest refund total ever recorded and an 8.1% increase on the previous year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growth in net personal income tax was primarily driven by above-inflation increases in pay-as-you-earn collections in sectors such as financial services, real estate, business services, and community and social services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Higher-than-expected withdrawals under the new two-pot retirement system also contributed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While these figures indicate improved revenue performance, SARS has made it clear that compliance enforcement remains a top priority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tax authority said it is determined to make it \u201chard and costly\u201d for taxpayers who wilfully fail to meet their obligations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the 2024\/25 year, SARS\u2019 compliance programme secured R304 billion in compliance revenue, up from R260.5 billion the year before, representing a year-on-year increase of nearly 17%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of this amount, R156.1 billion came from direct cash-collection initiatives, while a further R147.9 billion was attributed to strategies aimed at preventing revenue leakage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to SARS, this improvement is linked to enhanced compliance strategies and the diligent use of modern technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The revenue service added that it is steadily realising its Vision 2030 goal of becoming a smart, modern institution that is trusted and admired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A key aspect in realising this vision is the use of artificial intelligence, data science and machine learning to identify criminality and non-compliance more efficiently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These technologies allow SARS to analyse vast datasets containing transactional information linked to specific taxpayers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SARS’ powers under the Tax Administration Act<\/h2>\n\n\n
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SARS commissioner Edward Kieswetter<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Commissioner Edward Kieswetter has previously explained that AI-driven systems dramatically reduce the number of human hours required to analyse data and build legal cases, while also lowering the risk of errors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than relying on large teams manually reviewing records, smaller groups of technically skilled staff now work alongside automated systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tax Consulting SA has highlighted that these data-driven insights are a major driver of SARS\u2019 recent compliance gains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The firm noted that SARS can process taxpayer bank statements without prior warning and can also request information from crypto-asset service providers when investigating potential non-compliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While many taxpayers may find this intrusive, experts say this level of access has become standard practice for modern tax authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jashwin Baijoo, associate director at Tax Consulting SA, has previously warned that SARS has the power to instruct banks to withdraw funds directly from a taxpayer\u2019s account to settle outstanding tax debts, without the account holder\u2019s consent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that the courts have consistently upheld SARS\u2019 authority to do so. A court case involving a company under business rescue highlights the extent to which these powers can be exercised.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company owed around R24 million in VAT to SARS, but failed to formally agree with the tax authority to exclude the debt during the rescue process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The matter ended up in court, which ruled that the debt remained payable. SARS subsequently recovered the money directly from the company\u2019s bank accounts held at Nedbank and Investec.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Individuals are not immune to similar action. Tax and artificial intelligence specialist Andr\u00e9 Bothma has warned<\/a> that, while SARS does not monitor accounts in real time, it has extensive powers under the Tax Administration Act to access and use banking information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Banks are required to report account details, interest earned, deposits, withdrawals and loans to SARS, allowing the authority to cross-check declared income against actual cash flow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SARS can demand bank statements or transaction histories during audits, often without prior notice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where discrepancies are identified, taxpayers may face penalties, interest or even criminal charges for underreporting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If tax debts remain unpaid, SARS can freeze or debit bank accounts directly. With billions already recovered through these methods, experts expect bank-account scrutiny to remain a central feature of SARS\u2019 enforcement strategy well into 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SARS is expected to intensify its crackdown on tax non-compliance in 2026, with closer scrutiny of taxpayers\u2019 bank accounts remaining one of its most effective tools.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":780565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[853,12796,21727],"class_list":["post-846607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-south-africa","tag-tax-consulting-sa","tag-the-south-african-revenue-service-sars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=846607"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":847009,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846607\/revisions\/847009"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/780565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=846607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=846607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=846607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}