Important information for South Africans to pay less tax in 2025

With the 2025 tax season’s auto-assessments kicking off, experts are urging South Africans to claim key deductions and rebates to reduce their tax burden.

Tshepo Thebyane and Rehnu Vallabh, Senior Tax Consultants at Tax Consulting South Africa, told Daily Investor that knowing which deductions and rebates can be claimed against your taxable income is critical.

SARS will start sending auto-assessments to taxpayers with less complicated tax affairs from 7 July 2025 to 20 July 2025.

Taxpayers selected for auto-assessments would then have the option to accept or reject the respective assessments, depending on whether any other income was earned during the 2025 tax period, which was not taken into account in the auto-assessment.

Auto-assessed taxpayers will have until 20 October 2025 to view their assessments and make any changes to the respective assessments.

For non-auto-assessed and non-provisional taxpayers, the filing window should commence on 21 July 2025 and end on 20 October 2025.

Provisional taxpayers’ 2025 annual tax filing window will also commence on 21 July 2025, with their filing deadline stretched to 19 January 2026.

While tax filing season can be a stressful time for many South Africans, it is important that they make the most of this time to reduce their taxable income.

The first way this can be done, according to Thebyane and Vallabh, is by declaring any retirement annuity, pension, and provident fund contributions made during the tax period.

These contributions may qualify you for a deduction of up to 27.5% of your taxable income. The deduction is limited to 27.5% of the greater of your taxable income or remuneration, capped at a maximum of R350,000 per tax year.

SARS has officially listed the following tax filing commencement and deadline dates, which vary based on your income status as an individual taxpayer and a provisional taxpayer:

Deductions taxpayers can claim

South Africans can reduce their taxable income by claiming travel allowances from their employer for business-related kilometres travelled using their personal or company vehicle, beyond their total kilometres travelled during the tax period, Thebyane and Vallabh said.

Additionally, if you earn commission or run a trade, you can claim home office expenses and other qualifying costs incurred to produce your income.

Notably, however, these must fall within the allowable deductions listed under Section 23(g) of the Income Tax Act.

If a taxpayer is an employee and wishes to claim a deduction for home office expenses incurred while performing their work duties, they must follow specific requirements.

The deduction is limited to the expenses listed under section 23(m) of the Income Tax Act. One key requirement is obtaining written permission from their employer, confirming that they are allowed to work from home.

It is also important to ensure that any variable home office expenses incurred are apportioned based on the designated home office surface area, in addition to the total square footage of their home.

If a taxpayer is a sole proprietor, a business partner, or operates their own trade, it is important that they claim the relevant expenses incurred in generating income during the tax year.

These claims must be limited to the allowable trade expenses listed under section 23(g) of the Income Tax Act.

Any wear and tear sustained during the tax year on depreciable assets used for trade or business can be claimed as a deduction against the income generated.

Tax deductions of up to 10% of their taxable income are also available to those who make contributions to any registered Public Benefit Organisations.

To enable this claim, they should be in the position of a section 18A donations tax certificate, specific to the tax year in question, which they can request from the relevant Public Benefit Organisation.

All taxpayers making contributions towards any medical aid registered under the Medical Schemes Act can claim the applicable medical tax credits based on the number of dependents for whom the respective taxpayer incurred medical expenses.