The South African Revenue Service (Sars) collected net revenue of R2.01-trillion in the 2025/2026 financial year, which ended on March 31, slightly above the latest R2.007-trillion target set by finance minister Enoch Godongwana in his February budget.
The revenue is an 8.4% increase from the R1.855-trillion collected in the previous financial year. The agency said its compliance revenue efforts boosted revenue, growing to R316bn from R304bn in 2024/2025.
The tax base grew by 3.8% from 32.6-million in 2024/2025 to 34-million in 2025/2026, mainly due to the increased registration of individual taxpayers.
“The improved revenue collection result is R24.7bn higher than estimated a year ago, as announced by the minister at budget 2025,” Sars said.
“This achievement reflects the focused and attentive work of Sars in its compliance initiatives, improved administrative efficiencies, and a marginal contribution from the mining sector. The revenue collection enabled the minister of finance to save the nation an additional VAT increase as he had originally communicated.”
Outgoing Sars commissioner Edward Kieswetter said the milestone of breaching R2-trillion in revenue was “not an accident, but the outcome of the more than 14,500 employees who diligently perform millions of activities meticulously to achieve this record collection”.
Sars said it had achieved its revenue targets despite the challenges of a sluggish economy, geopolitical tensions, global supply-chain disruptions and the proliferation of the illicit economy.
“The illicit economy continues to drain the country’s resources, distort competition, and undermine public confidence in the tax system,” it said.
“Activities such as smuggling, customs and excise fraud, under-declaration, counterfeit trade, fuel and tobacco syndicates, and organised tax crime divert resources away from essential public services and place compliant taxpayers and legitimate businesses at a disadvantage.”
Revenue collection is also likely to come under pressure in the 2026/2027 financial year as individual taxpayers and companies grapple with the economic fallout from the Middle East war, which has sent global oil prices soaring.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.