SARS Auto-Assessments Are Back — Should You Accept Yours?

Since 2020, SARS has expanded its auto-assessment programme every year, and by now most salaried South Africans with straightforward tax affairs will receive one. It's a genuine convenience — but "auto" doesn't mean "correct," and accepting one blindly can cost you money either way.

Where the data comes from

SARS builds your auto-assessment entirely from third-party data submitted to them directly: your employer's IRP5, your medical scheme's tax certificate, your retirement fund's contribution certificate, and interest/dividend data from your bank and investment providers. If all of your income and deductions are fully captured by these third-party submissions, the auto-assessment can be genuinely accurate.

Why you should still check it

The auto-assessment can only include what SARS was actually sent. It has no visibility into:

• Deductions you're entitled to that don't come from a third-party certificate — home-office expenses, Section 18A donations, and additional out-of-pocket medical expenses are the most commonly missed.
• Income from sources that don't report to SARS in the same structured way — freelance or informal income, for instance.
• Corrections needed if an employer or medical scheme submitted incorrect figures (this happens more often than people assume, especially around mid-year salary changes or medical aid plan switches).

Three signs you should file manually instead of accepting

1. You made donations to a registered charity (Section 18A) this year — these are never in the auto-assessment because SARS doesn't automatically receive PBO donation certificates the way it does IRP5s.
2. You worked from home enough to qualify for a home-office deduction, or drove for work and kept a logbook — neither shows up automatically.
3. The numbers just look off — an unexpectedly large amount owed, or a refund that seems too small given what you know about your own deductions, is worth a second look before you accept.

What happens if you accept an incorrect auto-assessment

You have a limited window (usually 40 business days from the assessment date) to file a normal return if you disagree with the auto-assessment — after that, you'd need to formally dispute it, which is a slower and more involved process. It's far simpler to check the figures properly the first time.

Tax Chommie doesn't just take SARS's word for it — upload your documents and we reconcile them independently against what an auto-assessment would show, so you can see exactly what (if anything) is missing before you decide whether to accept.