The clicks, the scans, the scams – how to survive SA’s annual tax return season

It’s tax time – you should have started getting tax certificate notices from your medical scheme provider, your retirement annuity provider and any financial institutions with which you have savings or investments.

The good news is that there’s still time. Currently, the South African Revenue Service (Sars) is rolling out auto assessments. If you are one of those selected for an auto assessment, you will receive a notification via SMS or email between now and Sunday, 20 July.

If you don’t want to wait, you can check if you are going to be auto-assessed by using the Sars online query system dashboard on the Use our Digital Channels webpage.

Once you have accessed it, navigate to the “my auto-assessment status” icon to check your status.

Sars has advised that notifications will be issued in batches over the next two weeks.

How do auto assessments work?

An auto assessment is an automatic tax assessment of a personal income tax return where Sars uses prefiled information to calculate and issue an assessment without the need for taxpayers to complete or submit a tax return. Information that Sars uses to prepopulate the form comes from your employer/s, banks, medical schemes, retirement funds and insurers. If there is a discrepancy, you will need to contact the relevant service provider to correct it – Sars will not make the correction. For example, say the amount you contributed to your retirement fund has been incorrectly filled in or is missing a zero, you will have to contact the retirement fund for the fund administrator to send Sars the correct information.

Key filing dates

• 7-20 July 2025: Auto-assessment notifications sent by Sars
• 21 July 2025 – 20 October 2025: Filing period for non-provisional individual taxpayers
• 20 September 2025 – 19 January 2026: Filing period for Trusts
• 21 July 2025 – 19 January 2026: Filing period for provisional taxpayers

Supporting documents too big to upload?

The current limit for uploading supporting documents is 5MB and a max of 20 files. 

Joon Chong, partner at Webber Wentzel, had the following advice for taxpayers whose supporting documents were too big to upload:  

• Print and scan 300 by 300 DPI;
• Use a PDF compressor;
• Split a PDF into smaller files within 5MB limit, so there are fewer pages in a document;
• Reduce image quality;
• Remove unnecessary pages;
• Screen-shot relevant pages and paste to a word document; and
• Convert to other file formats such as TXT or RTF.

Tax season scams

Sars is aware of websites claiming that salaried workers can receive tax refunds of R8,000 if they file before 30 July. This information is not accurate and deadlines stipulated are incorrect. Tax assessments vary based on individual circumstances.

Standard Bank's head of fraud risk management, Advocate Athaly Khan, notes that scammers are in their element during tax season.

“In many cases we’ve seen in the past, fraudsters deploy bait communication via text, email, WhatsApp or telephone call. The communication may indicate that you have a tax rebate, tax penalty or that you are being investigated for contravening tax laws,” she explains.

Some of the more common scams Standard Bank has identified include:

Extortion and secure account scams

Fraudsters claim to be investigating your tax return submission, indicating they have discovered discrepancies that warrant criminal prosecution. They provide fabricated documentation to substantiate their allegations.

“Intimidation and manipulation tactics may be used to instil fear and panic so that you can follow their instructions,” Khan warns.

“Fraudsters usually ask for money to be paid over to them to make the case disappear, or they provide you with a fraudulent account number to transfer ‘funds potentially due to Sars’ so that the funds are secured while they are busy with the ‘bogus’ investigation. In most of these cases, they claim to be in collaboration with the bank, law enforcement or regulatory bodies.”

Change of banking details

Fraudsters send fake communication with banking details, claiming that you owe funds to Sars. If you do, in fact, owe Sars funds, this can give you pause for thought – however, the account details provided belong to fraudsters, not Sars. They may offer a settlement discount to pressure you into paying quickly without checking.

Phishing, smishing, quishing (QR code) and card not present

Fraudsters sometimes send communications that include a link, icon, attachment or QR code, laced with malicious software (malware) prompting you to click, download or scan. The malicious software is designed to gain unauthorised access to your device, including their digital banking profile. In other scenarios, you may be prompted to capture your card information to make payments to Sars, thus compromising your card details.

Key takeaways 

• Always stop to think and seek advice from your bank directly before making any payment to a person not known to you.
• The bank and other industry bodies have the capability to secure funds directly from your account should there be a need. They will never ask you to transfer your money “to keep it safe”.
• You should always validate banking details with the entity you are allegedly dealing with. For example, if it’s a phone call – hang up and call Sars on the number provided on the Sars website.
• The bank does offer a business directory for Sars accounts and Account Verification Services for the beneficiaries added by you.
• You should always be suspicious of links, icons, attachments and QR codes.

The bank and its employees will never ask you to click a link or scan a QR code to access banking services, be authenticated, redeem loyalty points, make payments, order a card, or update your information. DM