Warning for South Africans who have been auto-assessed by SARS: Don’t accept without review
South Africans who have been auto-assessed by SARS are being warned to double-check their tax returns
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South Africans who have been auto-assessed by SARS are being warned to double-check their tax returns, as relying solely on the pre-populated figures could lead to costly mistakes, penalties, or missed refunds.
Earlier this year, the revenue service confirmed that it had issued auto-assessments to 5.8 million taxpayers, paying out R10.6 billion in refunds, with most being processed within 72 hours.
SARS also confirmed that 99.6% of auto assessments issued were accepted without changes.
In an interview with Moneyweb Radio, TaxTim co-founder Daniel Swiegers said many taxpayers may not realise that SARS doesn't always have complete information.
"I guess our point is just that a lot of South Africans don’t realise that Sars doesn’t always have the full story," Swiegers said.
"So you get an auto-assessment and you think that’s great, but on both sides, you might actually have earned additional income that you haven’t declared. You might have a side hustle. You might have earned a little bit of commission or rental income. Those are things that SARS won’t know about that you actually have to include in your tax return".
He added that taxpayers could also be missing out on legitimate deductions not reflected in the auto-assessment.
“On the other side, from a deduction perspective, you might be able to claim home office deductions or donations to a charity. Again, SARS, because they don’t have that... it actually means your auto-assessment hasn’t been completed correctly.”
Swiegers stressed that accepting an assessment without checking could leave taxpayers vulnerable to penalties or audits.
“South Africans make the mistake of thinking that because Sars has sent you that number, that SARS is okay with that number, which is not the case. You ultimately have the liability to make sure that your assessment is actually correct, and you can’t just accept it at face value.”
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