It is tax season again - what should you look out for this year?

The 2025 Tax Filing Season is here. This is when the South African Revenue Services (SARS) shifts into top gear to ensure individual taxpayers declare all their income and pay their dues, which account for a significant portion of government revenue.

Increasingly SARS is modernising its systems, using artificial intelligence and data from third parties, such as banks and employers, to ensure everyone pays what they should.

Some of the system enhancements will also make it easier for you to file a return – and new features this filing season are again targeted at making it easier to file than not to do so.

What is new this filing season?

A welcome enhancement to the SARS eFiling platform is the Express Access button which makes eFiling more accessible for ordinary taxpayers.

Tshepo Thebyane, senior tax consultant at Tax Consulting South Africa, says the Express Access feature shows SARS is putting itself in the taxpayers’ shoes to ensure more seamless tax submissions.

Taxpayers who receive an auto-assessment can use this button to view their assessment, check if they have any previous outstanding returns or tax debt and address previous non-compliance issues. “Compliance has just become a lot easier,” he says.

An auto-assessment is an automated assessment of your personal income tax return that SARS does using information filed by third parties, such as your employer, banks, medical scheme, retirement fund or insurer about your income, investments and deductions. Accepting this assessment means you do not need to complete or submit a tax return.

Thebyane says the Express Access button will make it easier for taxpayers who are auto-assessed to either accept or reject the assessment.

Early filing

Anton Kriel, head of Taxation Compliance Services at BDO in Cape Town, says the enhancements are welcome since almost 4.8 million taxpayers benefited from auto-assessment this past tax year, and SARS collected the bulk of the personal income tax through this channel. SARS is able to help taxpayers finalise their affairs early in the season using auto-assessments.

In the 2024/25 tax year, more than 98 percent of auto-assessments were accepted. Less than one percent of auto-assessed taxpayers made changes to their returns.

Kriel says these statistics show how successful eFiling and auto-assessments are in revenue collection.

“However, many taxpayers find the eFiling system daunting because they typically use it only once a year. The new Express Access feature will make life easier for taxpayers who handle their own returns on eFiling and allow taxpayers to take control of their tax affairs,” he says.

Mind the pitfalls

You should, however, remember that the buck always stops with you, the taxpayer, to ensure your affairs are in order – not your tax practitioner or SARS. If SARS gets your auto-assessment wrong, it is your responsibility to ensure the correct information is filed.

Kriel says more than 90 percent of the information SARS uses to populate your auto-assessment comes from third parties, but this does not mean it is all accurate - gremlins can creep in.

He advises you carefully check that your auto-assessment or prepopulated return reflects your correct ID number, bank details and the correct amounts of income, capital gains and deductions.

It is also crucial to ensure all income received during the year is declared. Income streams from the likes of property rental, earnings from running a business or a side-hustle are not included in the auto-assessment. Some investment interest or taxable capital gains may also be omitted if SARS is not receiving data from your investment firm – particularly an overseas one.

If you accept the auto-assessment without checking that all your income is declared, it can lead to hefty penalties.

Mistakes happen

Although mistakes on third-party data are now rare, a few years ago errors were a real threat.

“Nowadays it may happen to about four out of 1 000 taxpayers, but among a million taxpayers, the chances increase. If you are unsure if your auto-assessment is correct, it is advisable to provide all relevant documentation to a qualified tax practitioner to verify,” Kriel says.

SARS says taxpayers who are happy with their auto-assessment don’t need to do anything. If you take no action before the deadline, the assessment becomes final.

Tax practitioners caution against this. Your auto-assessment may be inaccurate if SARS has not received all your tax certificates or has not received the most recent certificates. Some deductions you are entitled to may also be missing as SARS may not be aware of your expenses, according to a recent blog by online tax practitioner, TaxTim.

Address any incorrect or missing information promptly, either via your eFiling profile or with help from a tax practitioner.

Avoid last-minute filing

Kriel advises that you take note of the deadlines for filing your return and do not wait until the last minute to get your supporting documents ready.

If you use a tax practitioner to file your return, send the documents on as soon as possible. Often taxpayers miss important documentation the first time they send on their documents, Kriel says.

Not all financial institutions issue, or issue the correct, IT3 certificates summarising the details about interest, dividends and capital gains that you need to complete your tax return.

Get it sorted early in the filing season to avoid missing deadlines and incurring penalties, he advises.

Once a provisional taxpayer . . . not always a provisional taxpayer

Kriel warns against missing deadlines because you don’t realise which one applies to you.

For example, you may have been registered as a provisional taxpayer for the past year of assessment because you received interest income on the proceeds of a property sale.

But if this was a once-off occurrence and in the current year of assessment you receive less interest that falls below the provisional tax threshold, you may no longer be a provisional taxpayer and this will affect the deadline by which you must submit your return, he explains.

If you are not a provisional taxpayer, you need to file by 20 October this year or your submission will be late, attracting an administrative penalty.

“This underscores the importance of providing all relevant documentation to your tax practitioner early to avoid costly mistakes,” Kriel says.

Expect increased verifications

Thebyane warns that as SARS is becoming increasingly rigorous about verification of information submitted and audits, including revisiting past assessments, taxpayers must be vigilant and treat their filing obligations seriously.

In the 2024/25 fiscal year, SARS’ Compliance Programme interventions generated R301.5 billion in compliance revenue, including R103 billion from tax verifications triggered by AI-driven risk profiling models. This led to 1.7 million verifications cases.

There is no reason to believe SARS will let up.

Kriel says there is a high likelihood of being selected for verification if you receive a travel allowance or claim a deduction for home office expenses or high medical expenses.

Be prepared to submit supporting documentation if you are selected, he says.