History of the Tax Administration Act, 2011

Announced by the Minister of Finance in his 2005 Budget Review, the intention of the drafting of this Act was to remove all duplicated administrative requirements from all the tax Acts, simplify these requirements and provide a single piece of legislation wherein all administrative requirements for tax administration in South Africa are contained.

Public Comment – First Round

The drafting process started in 2005 and the first round of public comment took place over the period 29 October 2009 to 28 February 2010, during which many useful comments were received and discussions held with tax practitioners’ organisations / bodies.  The documents circulated for comment were-

• Draft Tax Administration Bill (TAB) – 29 October 2009
• Explanatory Memorandum on Draft Tax Administration Bill

Thereafter-

• changes were made to the TAB in the light of the comments and further review
• the TAB was submitted to external constitutional experts for a constitutional review, the to the Office of the Chief State Law Advisor and to Cabinet
• consequential amendments to the other tax Acts were drafted

Public Comment – Second Round

A second round of public comment took place over the period 29 October 2010 to 15 December 2010 and these were the documents circulated: 

• Draft Tax Administration Bill – 29 October 2010
• Schedule A – Schedule of Amendments
• Memorandum of Objects
• Explanatory information on the second round of circulation for public comment

Introduction into Parliament 

The Minister of Finance introduced the Tax Administration Bill, 2011 to Parliament on 23 June 2011.

• Tax Administration Bill, 2011 (Bill No. 11 of 2011)

Standing Committee on Finance (SCoF)*

The following documents were presented to the SCoF by SARS:

• Response Document on the Tax Administration Bill, 2011
• Briefing Note on Clauses 14-21 – Tax Ombud
• Briefing Note on Clause 63 – Search without a warrant

*All submissions to the SCoF are available to the public on the website of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group (PMG) on http://www.pmg.org.za

National Assembly

On 24 November 2011, the Tax Administration Bill, 2011, was passed by the National Assembly in Parliament.

• Tax Administration Bill, 2011 (Bill No. 11B of 2011)
  (containing the full Tax Administration Bill, 2011, with the effected amendments)
• Tax Administration Bill, 2011 (Bill No. 11A of 2011)
  (containing only the changes) 

Promulgation & Implementation

The Tax Administration Act, 2011 (Act No. 28 of 2011) was promulgated on 4 July 2012 and implemented by proclamation with effect from 1 October 2012.

Amendments

The Tax Administration Laws Amendment Act, 2012 (Act No. 21 of 2012) was promulgated on 20 December 2012.