Note: Year ending 31st December with the exception of social security contributions and taxes at provincial and local levels which are reported on a fiscal year basis beginning 1st April, meaning that the data for 2022 represent April 2022 to March 2023.
Tax revenues on national and provincial government level in South Africa are on a cash basis, while local authorities and public entities are on an accrual basis. Data on local government revenues were not available for the years 2019/20, 2020/21, and 2021/22.
Data prior to 1995/96 were restated retrospectively to aggregate the revenues from TBVC States and Self-Governing Territories.
With the adoption of the interim Constitution in 1994, these were abolished:
-TBVC States: Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda and Ciskei.
-Self-Governing Territories: Gazankulu, Kangwane, Kwandebele, Kwazulu, Lebowa and Qwaqwa.
Tax revenues at the local and provincial levels are only available from 2003 (representing fiscal year 2003/04). Local tax revenues are not reported for the years 2019 onwards.
Headings 1110 and 1120: The figures include Capital Gains Tax (CGT). CGT cannot be listed separately under 1120 and 1220 because the data that South African Revenue Service (SARS) collated for CGT are for liability raised and not actual CGT collections received. The figures exclude interest and fines from 1994 onwards. Figures on ETI refunds, which started being collected in 2014, are now reported under 1110.
Heading 2000: the social security contributions in South Africa include contributions to the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF). Standard practice in South Africa is to classify UIF under non-tax revenue. The methodology applied in the compilation of the data was to allocate 50% of the total social security contributions (UIF) to each of employees and employers. Revenues collected under the Occupational Diseases in Mines and Works Act are reported under heading 2110, social security contributions by employees on a payroll basis. Figures for these last revenues were not available for 2021.
Heading 4120: the figures refer to penalties and collection charges on property rates.
Headings 4110 and 4120: These are local government revenues for which figures are missing for the year 2019 onwards. Recurrent taxes on immovable property were divided into collections on households (4110) and penalties and collection charges (4120). As of 2022, Penalties and Collection charges are no longer reported as a separate line item for local revenues from property rates, and therefore are not reported here.
Heading 5111: includes interests and fines.
Heading 5121: following the OECD classification, the Road Accident Fund (RAF) is classified as an excise. The national classification of South Africa classifies this revenue as a social security contribution.
Headings 5121 and 5123: The data for customs duties and excise include revenue on import duties plus specific and ad valorem excise duties that will be paid to Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho and Namibia (BELN) through the revenue sharing agreement.
Heading 5123: SARS only started separately reporting ordinary custom duties on imported goods, specific excise duties on imported goods and ad valorem duties on imported goods from April 2012. From April 2014 onwards, the Customs Duty amounts for the specific tariff headings under chapter 27 (Mineral Fuels) were treated as fuel levies (5121 Excises). Some estimation was used for the year 2012 due to missing information. Revenues from the International Pollution Levy were reported for the first time in this edition of Revenue Statistics in Africa.
Headings 5127 and 6200: include negative figures due to refund accounting adjustments.
Heading 5211: an 80:20 ratio was used to split provincial recurrent motor vehicle taxes based on research about South Africa’s commercial and private household motor vehicle fleet.
Heading 6200: includes stamp duties and fees plus unallocated tax revenue.
Taxes that were discontinued and introduced (causing breaks in the data) include the following:
aOrdinary levy discontinued in March 2003 (heading 5127).
bDemutualisation charge has been included in heading 4400. There were two collections in March 1999 and August 1999.
cSecondary Tax on Companies (STC) in heading 1300 effective from July 1993 and changed to Dividends Tax (DT) in April 2012.
dSmall business tax amnesty (heading 1300) effective from March 2007.
eVAT (heading 5111) effective from September 1991 at a rate of 10% and increased to 14% in 1993. Prior to that, sales tax data was restated to VAT.
fLevy on financial services (heading 4400) effective from January 1992.
gSkills development levy (heading 3000) effective from May 2000.
-Plastic bags effective from June 2005.
-Electricity levy effective from August 2009.
-Incandescent light bulbs effective from March 2010.
-CO2 tax effective from September 2010.
iAir departure tax (heading 5126) effective from December 2000.
jUniversal services fund (heading 5213 paid in respect of other goods) effective from March 2006.
Memo items: the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) expenditure records the difference between South Africa contributions to the SACU pool and the South Africa revenue share from the SACU pool that includes the balance of the “surplus/deficit” for that fiscal year and allocations to the SACU secretariat. The figures for 2013/14 figures differ from numbers published in South African tax statistics since some Fuel Levy imports were included in that year.
Source: Data on national government taxation from the South African Revenue Service (SARS); data on social security contributions, and taxes levied at the provincial and local level from the National Treasury of South Africa.
