What exactly is a policy change?

South Africa previously had a value-added tax (VAT) exemption for low-value imported goods (under the old criteria, this applied to imported goods valued at less than 500 rand and certain low-value books). According to an analysis by a tax information agency, this exemption has effectively ceased to be enforced in practice since September 2024, and the Taxation Laws Amendment Act 2026 has formally enshrined this change in law, bringing administrative practices into alignment with the statutory provisions.

In other words, this isn't a new policy that's ”about to be implemented,” but ratherTax administration practices have been implemented first, with legislation following to ratify them.... situation. If sellers continue to price direct shipping of small packages based on the old criteria, they will effectively be shouldering tax burdens they hadn’t budgeted for.

From a global perspective, the elimination of tax exemptions for low-value consignment goods is not unique to South Africa. According to publicly available information, the European Union abolished the 22-euro exemption in July 2021, and the United Kingdom abolished the 15-pound exemption in January 2021. Singapore implemented the change in January 2023, Thailand in July 2024, and Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, and Norway have also successively implemented these changes. For Chinese sellers, this means that the model of ”taking advantage of tax havens by relying on low-value goods” is simultaneously becoming ineffective across multiple markets. They need to recalculate their pricing strategies and fulfillment models comprehensively, rather than responding on a case-by-case basis for each individual market. Specific Provisions and Enforcement GuidelinesThe official announcement by the South African Revenue Service (SARS) shall prevail.The

What Does Direct Shipping of Cross-Border Small Packages Mean?

• No More ”Low-Value Exemption” Buffer: The previous model of keeping landed costs low through small-value exemptions has become ineffective, directly eroding gross margins on low-priced goods—especially for categories with low average order values that rely primarily on high volume.
• This is a separate issue from the VAT registration threshold.: Effective April 1, 2026, the threshold for mandatory VAT registration will be raised to 2.3 million rand, and the threshold for voluntary registration will be raised to 120,000 rand; however, this increase in the threshold does not mean that VAT will be exempted on imports, and the two should not be confused.
• Platform-Based Withholding Does Not Alter Import Tax Obligations: Under the cross-border store model, the platform acts as a VAT agent to withhold and report VAT on behalf of merchants, but that refers to VAT at the point of sale; customs duties and import VAT must still be handled in accordance with customs clearance procedures.

The accounts for these three types of sellers should be calculated separately

The first category isSellers of Small Packages Shipped Directly to Customers...With low per-shipment values and high shipment frequency, the tax burden is the most sensitive factor relative to the selling price, so it is essential to rework the cost-to-land model and pricing strategy.

The second category isSellers with physical stores and local warehouses, VAT paid at the time of import can typically be claimed as an input tax credit upon obtaining compliant documentation; the actual impact is less significant than in the direct mail model, provided that the entity handling customs clearance is the same as the VAT-registered entity and the documentation chain is complete.

The third category isHybrid-Mode Sellers...It is necessary to distinguish the entity responsible for customs clearance and the ownership of the supporting documents for each shipment to avoid a break in the tax credit chain, which could result in a situation where ”taxes are paid but credits cannot be claimed.”

Action Checklist

We recommend proceeding in four steps: First, recalculate the CIF cost model to incorporate import VAT and customs duties into pricing, rather than adjusting them retroactively; second, verify that the entity responsible for customs clearance matches the VAT-registered entity to ensure the validity of tax credit documents; Third, assess the feasibility of switching from direct mail to stocking goods in local warehouses to convert the tax burden from ”non-deductible” to ”deductible”; fourth, continue to monitor follow-up announcements from the State Administration of Taxation (SARS) to confirm the final versions of the legislation and its implementation guidelines.

It is important to note that South Africa’s 2026 tax reform bill was released as a draft for public comment; administrative implementation and legislative progress are not entirely synchronized. Sellers should refer to the SARS official website for specific provisions.

It should be noted that POPIA compliance obligations are parallel to VAT registration and CE-01 business registration; completing one does not exempt a business from the others. We recommend including data compliance in the list of requirements for entering the South African market and addressing it concurrently with company incorporation and tax registration, rather than waiting until operations are already underway to address it.

Qicaiying can assist with South African VAT registration, import tax calculations, and the design of local warehouse structures, helping sellers clearly calculate the costs along this supply chain before deciding on their strategy.