05/10/2026
A delayed VAT refund can quickly become a cash-flow problem.
The business has already paid VAT to suppliers. It has submitted its VAT201. The refund is sitting on the return. Salaries, suppliers and operating costs, however, cannot be paid with a credit balance on eFiling.
Where a vendor is properly entitled to a refund, the VAT Act and Tax Administration Act provide mechanisms for that amount to be refunded. SARS states that a qualifying VAT refund should generally be paid within 21 business days after receipt of the correctly completed return, subject to the statutory circumstances in which the period may be suspended or recalculated.
This is where many delays arise.
A refund may be held while SARS verifies the claim, confirms banking details, waits for outstanding returns, requests access to records or audits the underlying transactions. Existing tax debt can also result in the refund being set off.
For finance teams, the practical issue is therefore not simply whether the VAT201 produces a refund.
It is whether the business can substantiate every material component of that refund.
Invoices, supplier information, import documentation, contracts, general-ledger entries and VAT schedules should agree before SARS asks for them.
A refund that repeatedly stalls often needs investigation rather than another follow-up call.
Latita Africa reviews the underlying refund, the verification history and the available escalation mechanisms where the normal SARS process has not resolved the matter.
