The South African Revenue Service, in processing all refunds, will always seek to balance the protection of the fiscus from illegitimate refund claims and the optimal processing of all refunds that are legitimate. This balance is further enhanced when considering that more than R50bn in illegitimate refunds are prevented from flowing out of the fiscus every year through tight risk engine rules.
The following table depicts the ageing of the VAT credit book as at 31 December 2021. The month end reports run on the 3rd of the following month hence the report is dated 3 January 2022.
Age Bracket |
Amount |
0 – 1 Month |
12 124 197 396 |
2 Months |
8 096 487 168 |
3 Months |
6 013 454 301 |
4 – 6 Months |
10 972 108 740 |
7 – 9 Months |
5 197 216 823 |
10 – 12 Months |
3 993 203 326 |
13 – 24 Months |
4 620 035 970 |
25 – 36 Months |
1 181 352 081 |
37 – 48 Months |
928 762 378 |
49 – 60 Months |
717 706 100 |
60+ Months |
2 358 401 594 |
Grand Total |
56 202 925 877 |
It must be noted that 81% of the book is within 12 months whilst 45% is within 3 months.
SARS at any given time will have amounts outstanding on refunds for a number of reasons including the following:
* CNC includes cases where SARS is awaiting taxpayer response on long outstanding documents having granted in excess of 35 days for taxpayer to respond.