Claims that SARS can now monitor personal bank transactions in real time have sparked widespread concern on social media, with online videos warning that side-hustles, private accounts and small-business income will soon be under instant surveillance.

Pretoria Rekord reports that tax experts say the fears are unfounded.

According to senior tax advisor André Bothma, no such system exists, has been announced, or is legally possible, and the technology behind SARS’s real-time monitoring rumours is pure speculation.

Bothma was speaking on the Jacaranda FM Breakfast with Martin Bester. He confirmed that no such system is currently in place.

He stressed that there is no law, no official SARS statement, no South African Institute of Taxation guidance, and no amendment to the Tax Administration Act 28 of 2011 that would permit real-time monitoring of private bank accounts.

“SARS simply does not have a live bank-tracking system — and nothing of that nature has been announced, funded, legislated, procured or developed,” he said.

“Banks only submit annual third-party data, which SARS has relied on for years. Even the VAT-modernisation project is still far from operational. The notion of real-time income-tax monitoring is not grounded in law, policy or existing technology — it is pure imagination.”

Botma furthermore explained that this is not real-time and has existed for years.

He added that SARS’s comments about ‘data integration’ or ‘AI compliance’ refer to using this existing yearly data more effectively, not live bank tracking.

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