On 6 February 2015 SARS Legal and Policy issued a notification for public comment. In the notification SARS indicates that they intend standardising all deferment settlement arrangements. “SARS will be standardising all deferment accounts to calendar months, with payment always due on the 7th of the subsequent month” In terms of the standardised terms, all deferment periods will consist of calendar months. Deferment accounts must be settled on or before the 7th of the subsequent calendar month. Currently importers or clearing agents may elect their own deferment settlement dates. The effective date of the new rules will probably coincide with the introduction of the amendments to the VAT Act on 1 April 2015.  From this date importers will be allowed to claim importation VAT in the tax period that  the Customs Release Notification is issued by Customs and Excise. Previously VAT vendors  could only claim the deduction in the tax period that the VAT was physically paid to SARS. For VAT vendors the new rules are generally good news as it will remove some of the operational compliance difficulties that VAT vendors currently experience.  For clearing agents this may entail a change in their operational model, but should not represent an ongoing challenge once the new payment dates are implemented. Comments on the proposed changes must be submitted to SARS at the following email address on or before 27 February 2015 – sauthar@sars.gov.za.