Creating solidarity between Africa and Brics countries top of Sars' list

The South African Revenue Service (Sars) participated in two multilateral meetings recently to cement international tax co-operation in Africa and among the Brics countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa).

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In line with its Strategic Objective 8-working with stakeholders and Strategic Objective 9-building public confidence and trust, Sars has been progressively working to rebuild South Africa's international partnerships, and has actively been participating in meetings with key organisations to this end.

These groups include The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Global Forum on Tax Transparency, African Tax Administration Forum (Ataf), World Customs Organization (WCO), The Southern African Development Community (SADC), The Southern African Customs Union (Sacu), United Nations and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Sars has also met bilaterally with other tax and customs administrations.

The first meeting was the hybrid seventh annual general assembly of the African Tax Administration Forum in Lagos, Nigeria, from 31 October to 3 November 2022. This was followed by the virtual meetings of Brics, hosted by the State Taxation Administration (STA) of China, which also serves as the current Brics chair. The meetings on 2 and 3 November 2022 comprised Brics tax experts and heads of tax authorities.