The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has published updated interest rate tables on 22 November 2024. Interest rates charged in terms of the legislation administered by SARS are split into three main categories, namely:

  • interest charged on outstanding taxes, duties and levies and those payable in respect of refunds of tax on successful appeals and certain delayed refunds
  • interest payable on credit amounts (overpayment of provisional tax) in terms of section 89 quat(4) of the Income Tax Act, 1962
  • interest applicable to a loan denominated in the currency of the Republic, as described in paragraph (a) of the definition of ‘official rate of interest’ in section 1(1) of the Income Tax Act, 1962

Table 1 – Interest rates applied to outstanding taxes, duties, and levies, as well as those payable for tax refunds following successful appeals and certain delayed refunds, will be reduced from 11.75% to 11.50%, effective 1 January 2025. This change follows the previous increase from 11.25% to 11.75% on 1 September 2023.

Table 2 – Interest rates on credit amounts (overpayment of provisional tax) will be reduced from 7.75% to 7.50%, effective 1 January 2025. This follows the previous increase from 7.25% to 7.75% on 1 September 2023.

 Table 3 – The income tax rates for interest-free or low-interest loans will be reduced from 9.00% to 8.75%, effective 1 December 2024. This follows a previous reduction from 9.25% to 9.00% on 1 October 2024. The latest reduction is a result of the Reserve Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee’s decision to cut the repo rate by 25 basis points.