The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has released updated interest rate tables effective from 1 May 2025.
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 89quat(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
For ease of reference, the tables of interest rates are given below in three separate documents, numbered according to the three main categories, i.e. the first group of interest rates can be found in Table 1.
| Table 1 | Interest rates on outstanding taxes and interest rates payable on certain refunds of tax updated on 1 May 2025 |
| Table 2 | Interest rates payable on credit amounts updated on 1 May 2025 |
| Table 3 | Rates at which interest-free or low interest loans are subject to income tax updated on 31 January 2025
* The South African Reserve Bank changed the “repo rate” on 30 January 2025, effective 1 February 2025 |
Earlier, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) lowered interest rates on outstanding taxes and overpayments, effective as of 7 January 2025.
