TAX NEWS - January 2010

South Africa: Customs registration and licensing initiative underway

In an effort to update their registration and licensing database, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) Customs and Border Management (Customs) has embarked on a registration and licensing verification initiative. On 18 December 2009, Customs published a letter on the SARS website relating to the intended update of taxpayer information; on the same day, amended rules to the Customs and Excise Act No. 91 of 1964 were published dealing with the "registration of persons participating in activities regulated by the (Customs) Act" and the "issuing and renewal of licenses," respectively.

The verification initiative requires that all current taxpayers complete the revised application form for the registration and/or licensing of Customs and Excise taxpayers (Form DA 185) and supply certain details regarding all securities/bonds furnished to Customs.

Customs has divided the initiative into two phases:

- The first phase will be targeted at the taxpayer base that has been financially active (e.g. payments and refunds) with Customs for the last two years. These taxpayers will be contacted during January 2010 with a request to update their relevant data; and

- Upon completion of phase one, all other taxpayers will be afforded the opportunity to update their applicable data.

Customs aims to allocate separate registration and/or licensing numbers to taxpayers participating in customs activities and those participating in excise activities. Taxpayers failing to update their details in the specified time period will not be able to transact any customs or excise business under their existing registration.