Under the TA Act, SARS is required to publish VAT class rulings and VAT private rulings (rulings) as well as decisions under section 72 for information purposes. However, to preserve the secrecy of taxpayer information, the ruling or decision must be published in a form that does not reveal the identity of the applicant or other parties to a transaction (confidential information). Examples of confidential information includes the name, address, and other identifying details of the applicant, as well as any person identified or mentioned in the ruling, and any other information that would constitute unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.
To this end, SARS sent out various templates to be completed by applicants applying for rulings via stakeholder channels, that will assist in the publication of the rulings or decisions in sanitised form. Templates for decisions under section 72 will also be sent via stakeholder channels in the near future.
In certain limited circumstances, due to unique facts relating to the parties to the transaction or to the transaction itself, it may not be possible to publish the ruling or decision under section 72 without revealing confidential information. In such a case, a summary of the issues raised in the application and the ruling or decision under section 72 that was given, may be published. In addition, a ruling or decision under section 72 that has already been published on a similar transaction, might not be published due to duplication and taxpayers will be informed accordingly.
SARS intends publishing all rulings and decisions under the revised section 72 (see VAT Connect 10 and VAT Connect 12 for more details), except to the extent that these decisions have expired, or are impacted by subsequent changes in the law. Rulings issued from 1 April 2023 will be published in due course, subject to the exceptions stated above.
For more information on the publication of rulings and decision under section 72, see the VAT Rulings Process Reference Guide and the VAT Section 72 Decisions Process Reference Guide. These guides will be updated to reflect changes to the VAT rulings process and will be communicated in a future issue of the VAT Connect or published in a media statement.
Source: gov.za
