South African Revenue Services (SARS) e filing

The South African Revenue Services (SARS) has opened the tax season for taxpayers who use its digital channels eFiling and the SARS MobiApp.

This tax season has been staggered to improve service to taxpayers and encourage conversion to online filing.

This means taxpayers who use SARS eFiling or the SARS MobiApp to file their income tax returns can do so from 1 July until 4 December. Taxpayers who wish to use online filing for the first time may also register from 1 July.

Those who prefer to file their income tax return at a SARS branch will be able to do so from 1 August until 31 October.

Taxpayers do not need to submit an income tax return if they meet all of the following criteria:

• Their total employment income for the year before tax is not more than R500,000.
• They only receive employment income from one employer for the full tax year.
• They have no other form of income (e.g. car allowance, business income, rental income, taxable interest or income from another job).
• They don’t have any allowable tax-related deductions to claim (e.g. medical expenses, retirement annuity contributions and travel expenses).