Dr Samantha Smith is STBB's chief Content Writer and Legal Editor, a position she has occupied since February 2024. Samantha graduated with a BSocSci, LLB, LLM, and PhD (Law) from the University of Cape Town. She brainstorms and writes all social media, newsflashes, newsletters, digital and print advertisements, magazine articles, webinar invitations, and podcast blurbs. Furthermore, Samantha creates tenders and proposals, legal updates and presentations, information sheets, content for special projects, and text for various other digital publications and communications. Additionally, she writes or edits biographies, and works on brochures, handouts, and other STBB collateral. Outside of her demanding role, Samantha is a passionate animal and environmental advocate whose comprehensive research has been praised by some of the world's leading animal law experts, including the planet's most published animal law scholar and an Acting Justice of South Africa's Constitutional Court.

STBB Newsflash | SARS Announces New Filing Window for Trusts

The South African Revenue Service (‘SARS’) recently announced the dates for the 2024 tax season.

According to SARS, the income tax return filing dates for individuals are as follows:

Non-provisional taxpayers: 15th July 2024 to 21st October 2024
Provisional taxpayers: 15th July 2024 to 20th January 2025

Individual taxpayers can expect to receive their auto assessments from 1st July 2024.

Additionally, SARS has introduced a new filing window for trusts in South Africa. Previously, SARS called for income tax returns for trusts to be filed during the same period as individuals. Now, the filing window for trusts runs from 16th September 2024 to 20th January 2025.

These changes are in line with SARS’ elevated compliance requirements for trusts. Designed to enhance transparency and improve the compliance rate of trusts, which is largely motivated by continued efforts to remove South Africa from the Financial Action Task Force’s global grey list, SARS introduced various changes to the trust tax return during the last filing season. These amendments include the detailed disclosure of trusts’ beneficial ownership structures and income and activities, and the declaration of distributions to beneficiaries through IT3(t) reporting.

Visit SARS’ website for more information.

Should you require legal assistance, do not hesitate to contact our trust and tax experts via trusts@stbb.co.za and tax@stbb.co.za.

For general legal queries, please email us at info@stbb.co.za.

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