INFOGRAPHIC | SARS falls short of higher debt collection target

FILE: SARS head Edward Kieswetter (L) and Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) is owed R523 billion undisputed debt from taxpayers as of December 2025. SARS has collected R71 billion since April 2025, but data indicates that the revenue service may not succeed in collecting their target goal of R135 billion by March 2026.

The latest data from the National Treasury shows that SARS collected R8.7 billion in undisputed debt in December 2025, which is R1 billion more than they collected in the same month a year before, but R1.8 billion below their reported target of R10.5 billion.

The SARS debt collection data shows that the review service has collected R71.2 billion in the nine months since April 2025, on track to reach their baseline target of R100 billion by March 2026 but missing the higher target of R135 billion.

After Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana issued an estimate of R1.986 trillion revenue for the 2025/26 financial year during the budget speech in May last year, SARS Commissioner Edward Kieswetter promised to accelerate work on collecting undisputed debt, including collecting an additional R35 billion above the R100 billion debt collected in the previous year.