On 26 November 2021, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) Executive: Customs and Excise Head: National Targeting Unit sent a notification to its External Stakeholders titled “Advance Payment Notification (APN)”. The notification reads as follows:
As part of the Customs Modernisation Programme (CMP), authorised dealers in foreign exchange and currency, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) and SARS are collaborating to combat illicit financial flows and customs valuation fraud associated with the misuse of advance foreign exchange payments in respect of goods to be imported.
Draft rules relating to advance foreign exchange payments were published on 15 October 2021 for public comment and can be accessed on the SARS webpage.
The Advance Payment Notification (APN) project is aligned with SARS’ strategic objectives relating to making it easy for taxpayers and traders to comply with their obligations, to detect taxpayers and traders who do not comply, and to make non-compliance hard and costly.
On 3 December 2021, SARS will be implementing a new functionality on its eFiling platform for importers to notify SARS of their intention to apply to an authorised dealer for an advance foreign exchange payment in respect of goods to be imported.
These Advance Payment Notifications (APNs) relate to outward payments of advance foreign exchange payments for imports (not in terms of an import undertaking) that exceed R50 000 for the following import categories:
- 101 01 Import advance payment (excluding capital goods, gold, platinum, crude oil, refined petroleum products, diamonds, steel, coal, iron ore and goods imported via the South African Post Office)
- 101 02 Import advance payment – capital goods
- 101 03 Import advance payment – gold
- 101 04 Import advance payment – platinum
- 101 05 Import advance payment – crude oil
- 101 06 Import advance payment – refined petroleum products
- 101 07 Import advance payment – diamonds
- 101 08 Import advance payment – steel
- 101 09 Import advance payment – coal
- 101 10 Import advance payment – iron ore
Further communication will follow in due course relating to the implementation of other parts or phases of the project.