Legal and Policy - 8 February 2024

SARS

• 1 February 2024 – Customs and Excise Act, 1964: The tariff amendments notice, scheduled for publication in the Government Gazette, relates to the amendments to –

• Part 1 of Schedule No. 2, by the insertion of the exporter name “Cooper (Kunshan) Tire Co. Ltd.”, with retrospective effect from 28 July 2023, under the list of companies that qualify to receive a weighted average anti-dumping duty of 14,56%, as well as the corrections to the names of Double Coin Group (Jiang Su) Tyre Co., Ltd and Qingdao Fullrun Tyre Tech Corp., Ltd, with effect from the publication date of this notice, as well as excluding the following companies from the list of companies qualify for the weighted average Anti-dumping duty of 14,56% as their responses were submitted after the deadline date and should therefore be subjected to the residual anti-dumping duty of 41,47%: Qingzhou Detail International Trading Co., Ltd., Shandong Gallop Rubber Co., Ltd., Wuchan Zhongda Chemical Group Co., Ltd., Navigator Rubber Co., Ltd., and Guangrao Taihua International Trade Co., Ltd with effect form date of publication of this Notice, on the investigation on new pneumatic tyres of rubber of a kind used on motor cars and on buses or lorries originating in or imported from the Peoples Republic of China in report 714 as implemented in Government Gazette 49047, Notice No. R3735 dated 28 July 2023 – ITAC Minute M08/2023 (with effect from2 February 2024, except for the insertion of the exporter name “Cooper (Kunshan) Tire Co. Ltd, which would be with retrospective effect from 28 July 2023).

Publication details will be made available later

• 1 February 2024 – Income Tax Act, 1962

Multilateral Instrument (MLI) synthesised texts:

• Chile
• Finland (updated)
• France
• Hungary
• Mexico
• The Netherlands
• Ukraine

• 2 February 2024 – The mobile tax unit schedule for Western Cape during February 2024 is now available.

• 2 February 2024 – Customs and Excise Act, 1964: Publication details for tariff amendment notice R4303, as published in Government Gazette 50065 on 2 February 2024, are now available.

• 2 February 2024 – The AfCFTA is a free-trade area, outlined in the African Continental Free Trade Agreement. The AfCFTA is the largest in the world in terms of participating countries since the formation of the World Trade Organisation.

On 31 January 2024, the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition launched the implementation of the start of preferential trade by South Africa.

For more information, see the letter to Trade.

• 6 February 2024 – SARS will introduce enhancements to the Tax Directives process as indicated in the IBIR-006 Tax Directives Interface Specification Version 6.601. Trade testing is planned to start on 12 February 2024 to prepare for the implementation of the software by end February 2024. In the event that dates are changed, SARS will communicate accordingly.

The Tax Directives Interface Specification is available here and you are encouraged to review it prior to testing.

Please follow these steps to submit test files:

Step 1: Before testing can commence, you will need to email 10 taxpayer reference numbers to ncts@sars.gov.za to ensure the numbers are active. In the email subject line, use “Tax reference numbers for Trade Testing”. A maximum of 10 taxpayer reference numbers will be allowed.

Step 2: You will be notified via the same email address to confirm when testing may commence.

For trade testing queries please email ncts@sars.gov.za.

National Treasury

• Annual Reports - RDP and Consolidated financial statements – 2 February 2024
• Provisional Financing Figures as at 31 January 2024 – 2 February 2024
• Publication of the 2023 Tax Acts and accompanying documentation – 6 February 2024

OECD

• Inclusive framework members continue countering harmful tax practices – 6 February 2024