Three big changes for SARS’ 2025 tax season

SARS has introduced several updates for 2025 eFiling, including Express Access, expanded auto-assessment eligibility, and stricter residency declarations.

With tax season here, Tshepo Thebyane and Rehnu Vallabh, Senior Tax Consultants at Tax Consulting South Africa, told Daily Investor that taxpayers should be aware of several filing changes SARS has introduced.

First, Thebyane and Vallabh said that the SARS eFiling system will have new enhancements, which will be incorporated into the 2025 SARS annual tax return.

The introduction of the Express Access feature, in particular, will ensure a user-friendly and easy-to-navigate platform.

This should make it easier for users to view and address their current and historic tax compliance, update their banking and contact details, and accept or reject their auto-assessments with minimal clicks.

According to Thebyane and Vallabh, another user-friendly feature that SARS has adopted to the eFiling system is the Expanded Auto-Assessment Eligibility option, which certain provisional taxpayers can utilise.

To advance SARS’ rigorous audit efforts, the taxman has also introduced a requirement that taxpayers who previously ceased their South African tax residency declare a Reinstatement Date of RSA Tax Residency.

This must be filed on the eFiling platform using the SARS RAV01 form. This will enable SARS to track the taxpayer’s exit and re-entry into the South African tax system, which may result in audits.

“We have seen that SARS has already introduced the two-factor authentication feature, for security purposes, which now requires two-factor authentication, as a means of protecting taxpayer data,” the tax experts said.

SARS clamps down on non-compliance

This year, SARS is also better equipped to clamp down on non-compliance, as the National Treasury gave SARS a R3.5 billion funding boost in the 2025/26 Budget.

It was also given an additional R4 billion over the medium term to enhance tax compliance and efficiency. The Treasury noted that over the past five years, SARS has made significant progress in rebuilding and modernising its systems.

It has shifted to online services and automated many processes to improve service, detect fraud, and enhance compliance.

In 2025/26, SARS will address the tax gap to improve revenue collection. This will be done by leveraging artificial intelligence and data science to improve taxpayer compliance and trade facilitation.

These enhanced collection efforts mean that it is more important than ever for South Africans to ensure their tax affairs are in order.

To maintain good standing with SARS and ensure taxpayers are in the taxman’s good books, Thebyane and Vallabh said taxpayers must first comply with section 67 of the Income Tax Act.

This section states that everyone must be registered as a taxpayer in accordance with Chapter 3 of the Tax Administration Act, should they at any time become liable for any normal tax or liable to submit any tax return contemplated in section 66 of the Income Tax Act.

It is also important to ensure that taxpayers maintain their current personal details on the SARS eFiling platform. Where any of these details have been updated, the Tax Administration Act compels taxpayers to update them within 21 working days.

Per the Tax Administration Act, it remains important to ensure that every taxpayer files their annual tax returns as and when they become due and on or before their communicated tax filing deadline to avoid any penalties for late submissions.

If taxpayers are auto-assessed by SARS, they must ensure that they accept or reject the auto-assessment on or before 20 October 2025.

Thebyane and Vallabh added that taxpayers should also adhere to section 102 of the Tax Administration Act.

This entails keeping track of all supporting documentation, safeguarding submitted declarations, and mitigating instances where SARS may opt to disallow a declaration due to insufficient supporting documentation.

“It is important to ensure that all the income variables and streams earned during a tax year are declared to SARS to ensure utmost compliance and avoid triggering tax evasion speculations per section 235 of the Tax Administration Act,” they said.