{"id":879831,"date":"2026-10-18T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=879831"},"modified":"2026-10-16T15:55:42","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T13:55:42","slug":"r16000-sars-penalty-warning-for-one-group-of-taxpayers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/879831\/r16000-sars-penalty-warning-for-one-group-of-taxpayers\/","title":{"rendered":"R16,000 SARS penalty warning for one group of taxpayers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has started issuing final demand notices to trusts with outstanding returns, ending the temporary relief from earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February 2026, SARS issued final demand letters to trusts with outstanding income tax returns, giving each one 21 days to comply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If a trust does not comply with tax return requirements, SARS can issue administrative penalties ranging from R250 to R16,000 per month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the final demands were issued, SARS faced scrutiny over the validity of the penalties it had imposed, given the timing of the letters and the related public notice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For SARS to impose administrative penalties, it must be supported by a public notice, which identifies the relevant non-compliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the penalties against trusts, final demand letters were sent in February 2026, but the related public notice was only published on 27 March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The public notice, published after final warnings had been issued, raised questions about whether demands issued before the public notice were reliable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the discrepancy, SARS held several stakeholder engagements to decide on a plan and opted to defer the penalties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 6 July 2026, SARS issued a notice of penalty cancellation for trusts which did not submit income tax returns for 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While many raised concerns that final warnings were issued before the relevant public notice, SARS did not explicitly confirm that this was the reason for the cancellation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While this gave South Africa’s trusts a temporary reprieve, SARS has recently started issuing final demands for income tax returns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tax Consulting SA said SARS had started issuing these notices in October 2026 and that they signal the end of the previous penalty cancellation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Final demand letters issued in October 2026 indicate that SARS has recommenced its enforcement after concerns raised regarding the legal validity of the initial penalty process, led to the temporary reprieve,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Time is running out<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tax Consulting SA said the latest move from SARS signals that it is ready to enforce the penalties it previously cancelled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The message is clear: while the earlier penalties were reversed, the underlying obligation to submit trust income tax returns remain unchanged,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said that trustees had been given sufficient time to comply with SARS’s tax return requirements and regularise their trust’s affairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Trustees as representative taxpayers for a trust, have been given adequate notice and sufficient time to regularise their trusts\u2019 affairs,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Trust compliance has long been an area of concern for the tax authority, and it has repeatedly warned trusts and trustees of the obligation to meet their tax filing requirements.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group warned that administrative penalties for non-compliant trusts could be up to R16,000 per month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Penalties are determined under section 211 of the Tax Administration Act and range from R250 to R16,000 per month, depending on the applicable statutory penalty category,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“These may recur for up to 35 months while non-compliance continues.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With SARS now issuing final demands, Tax Consulting SA said trusts should not delay in complying with the revenue service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The latest development suggests that the hourglass is fast running out for trusts with outstanding income tax returns,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Trustees should urgently review their trusts\u2019 compliance status and submit any outstanding income tax returns within the prescribed 21-business-day period.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They should also verify that previously reversed penalties have been removed from their SARS accounts.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group also warned that inactive trusts are not exempt from income tax requirements and may also be penalised by SARS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Dormant or inactive trusts are not automatically exempt from filing obligations and should pursue formal deregistration where appropriate,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SARS has started issuing final demand notices to trusts, ending the temporary relief from earlier in the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":862126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2111729256384307505","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2240978076722591","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18388896733228757","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[3246,12796,21556],"class_list":["post-879831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-sars","tag-tax-consulting-sa","tag-trusts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879831","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\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=879831"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":879852,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879831\/revisions\/879852"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/862126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=879831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=879831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=879831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}