Income tax auto-assessment

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has made significant changes to the 2022 Tax Filing Season. This year, over 3 million individual non-provisional taxpayers, have been auto-assessed by SARS and will not have to file a tax return if they are satisfied with the outcome.

The introduction of auto-assessments, among other enhancements this year, is in line with SARS’ journey of building a customer-focused, modern revenue service.

What is an auto-assessment?

SARS will use data collected from employers, financial institutions, medical schemes, retirement annuity fund administrators and other 3rd party data providers to generate the assessment automatically, without any input from the taxpayer. It is intended to remove the need for taxpayers to travel to branches to file returns.

If you are selected for an auto-assessment, you will receive an SMS from SARS. If the auto-assessment is incomplete and you wish to file a return, you have 40 working days from the date of the assessment to do so. Should you take no action, the auto-assessment will become your FINAL assessment after 40 working days.

Although administratively it would be easier to accept an auto-assessment, there are risks involved that may result in a higher tax expense. SARS may not have received all of your tax certificates so you might miss out on claiming certain deductions, which do not appear on your auto-assessment e.g. wear and tear, home office, donations to charities, travel expenses and medical expenses that you have paid for.

SARS advises taxpayers to wait for the email and SMS and to not visit SARS branches without an appointment. Those who prefer to visit SARS branches should make a booking on the SARS appointment system to ensure an efficient service experience. This can be done either by sending an SMS to 47277 with the word Booking (Space) ID number/Passport number or by visiting the SARS website ( www.sars.gov.za) and clicking on the “Book an Appointment” icon.

Please take note of the following key dates:

Income tax return filing dates:

• 1 July 2022 to 24 October 2022 - Taxpayers who file online
• 1 July 2022 to 23 January 2023 - Provisional taxpayers including Trusts may file via eFiling or SARS MobiApp.

Taxpayers who cannot file online can do so at a SARS branch by appointment only.

Contact your tax practitioner for more information.

Aneesa Khan

Head: Finance & ICT