Warning to South African crypto users

South Africa’s revenue service urges those involved in crypto asset transactions to register with the authority, as it seeks to rein in tax defaulters.

“We’ve invited taxpayers, exchanges and other intermediaries to register, because now, if you don’t register, you’re breaking the law,” South African Revenue Service Commissioner Edward Kieswetter told Bloomberg in an interview on Tuesday.

“Once they have registered, we now have knowledge of their existence, and we can now begin to track their business activities.”

Kieswetter identified crypto assets as an area where the agency could increase revenues as he announced preliminary data showing tax collections beat Treasury estimates by almost R9 billion, coming in at R1.855 trillion in the year through March 2025.

Nearly 6 million South Africans hold a crypto asset, with southern Africa accounting for the largest uptake of the Bitcoin token in the world, according to SARS data.

In 2022, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority estimated that R520 million a month was traded through South African crypto asset service providers and declared it a financial product.

SARS is ramping up efforts to identify those who deal in crypto assets so that it can begin to enforce the law, but the process will take time.

“It’s a multi-pronged attack, but I think it’s going to take some time before we get completely on top of it,” said Kieswetter.