The South African Revenue Service (Sars) has collected R900-billion in the 2013/14 fiscal year, up by 10.6% from tax revenue collected in the previous year.
The 2014 Tax Statistics Bulletin released by Sars and National Treasury on Tuesday, 4 November shows that in the 2013/14 fiscal year, tax revenue collected grew by R86.2 billion compared to the 2012/13 financial year.
The growth in tax revenue also saw a pro rata rise in the number of individuals registered for income tax. As of 31 March 2014, the number of registered income tax individuals stood at 16.8-million, with the most assessed taxpayers based in the Gauteng, according to the bulletin.
There were nearly 2.7-million registered companies in South Africa as of 31 March 2014, and nearly 700 000 registered Value Added Tax (VAT) vendors, according to the bulletin. VAT collections grew by 10.5% in 2013/14 compared to the previous fiscal year. VAT was the second largest contributor to total tax revenue for 2013/14, totalling R237.7-billion (26.4%).
Customs duties also registered a solid performance, growing by 13.3% compared with the previous year. This was a result of gains from a deteriorating domestic currency as well as strong growth in the imports of some key dutiable commodities, the bulletin notes.
Tax Statistics Bulletin is released annually and contains publicise comprehensive tax revenue data to assist policy makers and provide insights on economic indicators to researchers, analysts, the media and the public in general.