In the national budget speech this year, finance minister, Tito Mboweni announced the initiation of a new unit within SARS dedicated to improving tax compliance from wealthy South Africans. In accordance with Mboweni´s plans for tax revenue collection, SARS has recently updated its vacancies page, advertising a whopping 370 jobs in a bid to clamp down on SAs wealthy. 

The budget included a bump of R3 billion allocated to the expansion of specialised auditing and investigative areas within SARS, as well as the implementation of data analytics and artificial intelligence. This comes as SARS finds itself “in an era characterised by rapidly evolving technological innovation, SARS is preparing for a world where increasingly our work is informed by data-driven insights, machine learning, algorithms, artificial intelligence and interconnectivity of people and devices”, according to a statement published by the revenue service.

Included in the extensive list of vacancies are the positions of criminal investigators, corporate income tax analysts, audit specialists (specifically for mining and other large international business taxes), specialists in interpretive tax policy, which sends a clear message - SARS is looking for specialists who are capable and competent of digging deep into the pockets of high earning business magnates.

Other techie positions include data scientists, senior specialists in data analytics, digital forensic investigators. This move comes as SARS transforms its system to “a smart modern SARS with unquestionable integrity, trusted and admired by all". Most notably is the Director of High Wealth Individuals vacancy. The core purpose of this role is to specifically deal with wealthy and complex taxpayers. The Directors job will be to ensure the collection of tax revenues due and to appropriate enforcement when taxpayers are non-compliant.

In addition, SARS is looking for 200 tax, legal and auditing graduates to join the new unit.

With this in mind, if you have a complex tax situation, it might be best to reach out to a tax professional before the taxman comes knocking at your door. TaxTim is for all individuals earning an income in South Africa, including small business owners, freelancers and entrepreneurs.