The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has collected just over R1bn from the Special Voluntary Disclosure Programme (SVDP). This programme, launched by former finance minister Pravin Gordhan in his 2016 budget speech, gave noncompliant taxpayers a one-off opportunity to voluntarily disclose offshore assets and income. According to SARS, the programme allows taxpayers to "regularise their unauthorised foreign assets and income by voluntary disclosing tax and exchange control defaults specifically in relation to offshore assets". SARS recently announced tax revenue of R275.4bn in the first quarter of the financial year to end-June — which was R13.1bn less than the printed estimate — and there is concern that tax revenue for the year will fall short of the target. SARS said on Tuesday that more than 2,000 taxpayers had used the SVDP between October 2016 and August 2017. The total tax liability stands at R1.18bn. Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba earlier estimated the potential tax incom...
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