The stage 2 report noted that South Africa was conducting tax treaty negotiations with several jurisdictions. This situation has remained the same. Further, the stage 2 report noted that South Africa had signed a new treaty with Germany, which have not yet entered into force since the treaty partner had not yet ratified it. This situation has remained the same as well. South Africa and Germany have also negotiated an Amending Protocol to the DTA which has not yet been signed. South Africa ratified the BEPS MLI on 30 September 2022, which entered into force from 1 January 2023.
Making Dispute Resolution Mechanisms More Effective – Consolidated Information on Mutual Agreement Procedures 2023
OECD/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Project
South Africa
Recent developments relating to MAP in South Africa prior to 15 August 2023
Developments relating to MAP in the tax treaty network
Other developments relating to MAP
South Africa is in the process of introducing an Advanced Pricing Agreement (APA) programme in its legislation. Draft legislation with regards to APAs has been included in South Africa’s Draft Tax Administration Laws Amendment Bill, 2023, (the draft Bill) that will insert it as a new Part IA in Chapter III in the Income Tax Act, 1962. The draft Bill was released for public comment on 30 July 2023 after which the normal legislative process will follow. It is expected that the legislation will be promulgated by the President during December this year or January 2024, following which it will be brought into force by the Minister of Finance. As the APA programme will require scarce resources, it is envisaged that the programme will commence with a pilot shortly after the legislative framework has been put in place.
Latest Action 14 Peer Review report
26 July 2021 - https://doi.org/10.1787/bdae3e57-en
Tax treaty network of South Africa
78 treaties, applicable to 79 jurisdictions (covering all treaties signed, although not necessarily in force)
status of MLI: in force.
Table 1. State of play of South Africa's tax treaty network
Source: OECD
South Africa's MAP programme
Organisation of competent authority function
five persons:
one head of unit
four persons working on MAP cases (all of which work on other tasks as well):
one person works on attribution/allocation cases and three persons work on other cases.
contact persons for MAP requests:
South African Revenue Service, Legislative Policy Tax, Customs and Excise, Private Bag X923, Pretoria, 0001, Tel: +27 12 422 4000
for attribution / allocation cases: Mr Franz Tomasek, Head: Legislative Policy Tax, Customs and Excise, South African Revenue Service, Email: TransferPricingMAP@sars.gov.za.
for other cases:
Mr Morne Van Niekerk, Manager: International Development and Treaties, South African Revenue Service, Ms Celeste van der Lith, Manager: International Development and Treaties, South African Revenue Service
Ms Zandile Magaqa, Specialist: International Development and Treaties, South African Revenue Service, Email: SARSMAP@sars.gov.za.
Figure 1. Competent Authority Organisational Structure
Source: OECD
Table 2. Guidance on the MAP process
Overview of South Africa's MAP Statistics for 2022
Please refer to https://www.oecd.org/tax/dispute/map-statistics-south-africa.pdf for details with respect to South Africa's MAP Statistics.
Figure 2. Cases Closed in 2022
Source: OECD
Figure 3. Evolution of South Africa's MAP caseload (2016-22)
Source: OECD
Table 3. Overview of South Africa’s MAP caseload for 2022
Source: OECD
Table 4. South Africa’s average time to resolve MAP cases in 2022
Source: OECD