It’s D-day for taxpayers in South Africa

Monday, 21 October, marks the last day individual taxpayers can file their tax returns to the South African Revenue Service (SARS).

The tax deadline applies to most individual South African taxpayers, although provisional taxpayers still have until 20 January for their tax affairs, as well as trusts.

A provisional taxpayer is a person who receives income (or to whom income accrues) other than remuneration. 

Most salary earners are, therefore, non-provisional taxpayers if they have no other sources of income.

Non-provisional taxpayers have had since 15 July 2024 to file their tax returns.

The filing due date of 21 October 2024 also applies to South African taxpayers who disagreed with their auto-assessments, which were released in July of this year.

If taxpayers file after the deadline, their return will be considered late and will start attracting penalties.

SARS previously said that the pool of taxpayers who will be auto-assessed will increase from 3.8 million in 2023 to roughly 4.8 million this year.

Nevertheless, high-net-worth individuals or people with more sophisticated tax affairs, such as company directors and independent traders, are more likely to be excluded from auto-assessments.

In addition, South Africans must remember that SARS only uses the information it has available to it, meaning that the taxman may not consider certain deductions and credits available to the taxpayer.

What to do

For those who disagreed with their auto-assessment, there is no need to file an objection to their auto-assessment.

They simply need to complete their return and file via eFiling or MobiApp by the end of today.

Filing a return after the expected due date of 21 October 2024 will attract penalties.

“If we accept the updates in your tax return, we will issue you a reduced or additional assessment,” said SARS.

“If we do not accept the updates in your tax return, we will let you know why not. If you disagree with the reason(s) why we did not accept the updates in your tax return, you can follow the normal route to object to SARS’s decision.”

SARS noted that under exceptional conditions, one can request an extension to fill their tax return within 21 business days after 21 October 2024.

However, the extension does not waive late-filing penalties, meaning any return filed after 21 October 2024 will be penalised regardless of the circumstances.

Scam warning

Tax filing season as a whole tends to see a surge in scams related to SARS and tax affairs as many taxpayers are actively seeking communication from the revenue service.

However, the end of filing season in particular is ripe for scammers to take advantage of unsuspecting taxpayers.

South Africans are warned to be on the lookout for any fraudulent emails or messages that appear to be coming from SARS, demanding money.

Always ensure that any communication is official and comes from SARS, and report any suspected fraud.

SARS has also noted that taxpayers should be aware of the following when it comes to communication and potential scams:

• Do not open or respond to emails from unknown sources.
• Beware of emails that ask for personal, tax, banking and eFiling details (login credentials, passwords, pins, credit/debit card information, etc.).
• SARS will never request your banking details in any communication you receive via post, email, or SMS. However, for the purpose of telephonic engagement and authentication, SARS will verify your personal details. Importantly, SARS will not send you hyperlinks to other websites—even those of banks.
• Beware of false SMSes.
• SARS does not send *.htm or *.html attachments.
• SARS will never ask for your credit card details.

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