SARS filing season 2026: dates, who must file and how to avoid penalties

SARS filing season 2026 runs from 13 July to 23 October 2026 for most individual taxpayers. If you do nothing else this month, confirm whether you need to file, and if you do, do it before the last week - the final days of every filing season are when eFiling is slowest and when avoidable mistakes get made.

The dates that matter in 2026

Date	What happens	Who it applies to
1–12 July 2026	Auto-assessment returns issued	Selected taxpayers
Mon 13 July 2026	Filing season opens	All individual taxpayers
Fri 23 October 2026	Deadline to submit	Non-provisional individual taxpayers
Fri 22 January 2027	Deadline to submit	Provisional taxpayers and trusts

The year of assessment being filed is the one that ended on 28 February 2026, so the income and deductions on this return cover 1 March 2025 to 28 February 2026. This is the single most common misunderstanding in filing season: the return you submit in 2026 reports last year’s income, not this year’s.

Auto-assessment: what changed and what did not

Auto-assessment issues a pre-populated return to selected taxpayers, usually between 1 and 12 July. It is a convenience, not an exemption from responsibility.

• If the pre-populated return is complete and correct, accept it and the assessment is finalised.
• If something is missing - medical expenses you paid yourself, a retirement annuity contribution, a second income stream, a rental - edit and submit the return before 23 October.
• If you simply leave it, the assessment may be finalised without the information you would have added, and correcting it afterwards means a request for correction with its own delays.

Who must file, and who may skip it

You generally must submit a return if any of the following is true:

• You received income from more than one employer during the year.
• You received a lump sum, an allowance, or income from a trade, rental or commission.
• You contributed to a retirement annuity and want to claim the deduction.
• You want to claim medical scheme fees credits or out-of-pocket medical expenses above the credit.
• You received income above the tax threshold and tax was deducted incorrectly or not at all.
• SARS has specifically asked you to file - that request is binding regardless of the general rules.

You may not need to file if your income came from a single employer, was below the threshold, and no other circumstances apply. If you are close to the line, file anyway: there is no penalty for a return that produces a nil assessment.

What you need before you start

The full list is on the tax document checklist, but the short version is: your IRP5 or IT3(a), a medical aid tax certificate if you belong to a scheme, retirement annuity contribution certificates, proof of any other income, and banking details that match your SARS record exactly.

Before you open eFiling

🖨 Print this checklist

Before you open eFiling: tick each item as you complete it

• IRP5/IT3(a) - check the amount matches your payslips
• Medical aid tax certificate for the year of assessment
• Retirement annuity certificates (RA, pension, provident)
• Details of any rental, investment or side income
• Bank confirmation letter if your account has changed

Ticks are not saved and are not sent anywhere. Nothing you do on this page leaves your device.

Filing, refunds and the last week of the season

File through eFiling, the SARS MobiApp or a SARS branch if that is what suits you. After submission, the return is either finalised immediately or selected for verification or audit; verification is not an accusation, it is a document check.

Refunds generally follow shortly after a successful assessment, but three things delay them more than anything else: bank details that do not match the taxpayer record, an unanswered verification request, and a submission made in the final 48 hours of the season when volumes are highest.

If your circumstances are straightforward, our income tax calculator will give you a rough check on whether the PAYE deducted over the year looks about right, and the take-home salary calculator shows how PAYE, UIF and pension contributions affect a monthly payslip. Neither is Tax Season itself, and neither files anything for you.

If you are a provisional taxpayer

Provisional taxpayers follow a different clock that runs parallel to filing season: an IRP6 return by 31 August 2026 for the first period, and a second IRP6 by 26 February 2027. Their ITR12 is due 22 January 2027. The detail, including the voluntary top-up payment options, is on the provisional tax deadlines page.

Last reviewed 13 October 2026. The filing season dates were set by Government Gazette Notice 7422 of 30 April 2026 and are re-checked before every deadline on this page.