South African financial institutions and certain financial technology businesses should review their tax reporting systems after SARS announced enhancements to the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) and Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) reporting framework.
The changes, announced by SARS on 23 September 2026, align South Africa’s reporting systems with CRS Schema 3.0. They are intended to improve tax transparency, strengthen data quality and help SARS identify potential offshore tax non-compliance. The announcement is relevant primarily to reporting financial institutions and organisations that support financial-account reporting, rather than to ordinary trading businesses.
What has changed
Several products and institutions are being brought into the reporting environment. These include e-money products, payment institutions, digital wallet platforms and central bank currency accounts.
The changes also strengthen the information expected from reporting entities. This includes improved taxpayer and controlling-person information, more robust self-certification procedures, clearer tax-residency identification and better tax identification number data.
For reporting financial institutions with no reportable information for a period, SARS has introduced a system-generated null-submission indicator for internal processing. SARS also states that the requirement to submit an FTI02 declaration after a successful FTI01 null submission has been removed. A submitting entity may include up to 20 reporting financial institutions in one FTI01 submission.
Who should pay attention
The immediate impact is likely to fall on banks, custodial institutions, investment entities, specified insurance companies and other reporting financial institutions. Payment businesses, digital-wallet operators and businesses offering e-money products should also assess whether their activities now fall within the relevant reporting categories.
Accounting firms, payroll or finance teams supporting affected organisations should not assume that existing reporting classifications remain correct. The treatment of an entity depends on the nature of its products, accounts, customers and tax-residency obligations.
Checks businesses should complete
- Review the entity classification: confirm whether the organisation is a reporting financial institution or has become subject to reporting because of a new product or service.
- Map affected products: identify e-money, payment, wallet and account products that may require additional data or due diligence.
- Test self-certification controls: check how customer tax residency, controlling persons and tax identification numbers are collected, validated and stored.
- Update system specifications: compare internal reporting fields with the latest SARS requirements and the applicable CRS and FATCA business requirements specification.
- Review null-submission procedures: ensure staff understand when an FTI01 submission is required and how the updated process differs from previous reporting practice.
Practical next steps
Management should assign responsibility for the review to a tax, compliance, finance or data-governance owner. The review should document the organisation’s classification, affected products, reporting data sources, system changes and testing timetable.
SARS has referred reporting entities to the updated GEN-ENR-01-G04 external guide and the Final External BRS Version 3.0.0-17 for AEOI CRS and FATCA reporting. The SARS FATCA and CRS resource page provides the relevant reporting background and supporting documents.
This is a technical compliance development rather than a general tax-rate change. Businesses that are unsure whether they are within scope should obtain professional advice before submitting or changing their reporting arrangements. YFP’s accounting and tax services can support businesses reviewing their compliance processes and financial reporting controls.
