Tax season is officially underway, and for roughly six million South Africans the message from the South African Revenue Service (SARS) is refreshingly simple: do nothing. The 2026 filing season opened on 1 July, and SARS has kicked things off with an auto-assessment window running until 12 July, during which it expects to issue about six million automatic assessments to taxpayers with straightforward affairs.
Auto-assessments are built from data SARS already receives from employers, banks, medical schemes and retirement-fund administrators. Where that third-party information is complete, the revenue service reconciles it and calculates the outcome on the taxpayer's behalf. "We are removing the burden of having to file a tax return for six million taxpayers by automatically assessing them," SARS Commissioner Dr Johnstone Makhubu told 702 listeners this week. If a refund is due and all the details are in order, SARS says it aims to pay it within 72 hours.
What you need to do, and when
If you are one of the six million, you will receive an SMS or email notification. Until that message arrives, there is nothing to do, no service centre to visit and no call centre to phone. Taxpayers who are satisfied that their assessment is complete and correct can simply leave it. Those who disagree, or who are not auto-assessed at all, can file from 13 July. The deadline for most non-provisional and provisional taxpayers is 23 October 2026, while trusts and provisional taxpayers have until 22 January 2027. SARS says the staggered, phased approach is designed to ease pressure on its systems and branches.
Watch out for the scammers
The convenience comes with a warning. Makhubu cautioned that fraudsters routinely exploit filing season with fake refund and debt notifications, nudging people to click malicious links and hand over banking or personal details. His reminder is worth repeating: SARS will never ask for your banking or credit-card details by email or SMS. If a message does, treat it as a scam.
The commissioner was candid that compliance remains a work in progress, singling out provisional taxpayers, the self-employed and those with additional income streams as the group least likely to file. By automatically assessing millions of salaried earners, SARS is effectively shifting a large chunk of the population into a compliant bucket, freeing its enforcement muscle to focus where the gaps are widest.
