Filing Season 2026: SARS Has Set the Dates. Are You Ready?
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The 2026 filing season is officially open. SARS Commissioner Edward Kieswetter published Government Notice 7422 on 30 April 2026, formally requiring persons to submit income tax returns for the 2026 year of assessment. For individuals, the 2026 year of assessment covers the 12-month period ending 28 February 2026. For companies, it covers the financial year ending during the 2026 calendar year.
Who must file?
The notice covers a wide range of taxpayers. The following persons are required to submit a return:
Every resident company or juristic person that derived gross income of more than R1,000, held assets or liabilities of more than R1,000 at any time, had capital gains or losses exceeding R1,000 from the disposal of an asset, or had taxable income, taxable turnover, or an assessed loss.
Every trust that was a resident during the 2026 year of assessment. With SARS recently activating formal penalties for non-compliant trusts (see our article SARS Makes Trust Return Penalties Official), trust filing is no longer an area where you can afford to be casual.
Every natural person who carried on any trade during the year, other than solely as an employee.
Every natural person with capital gains or losses exceeding R40,000.
Every resident who held funds in foreign currency or owned assets outside South Africa where the total value exceeded R250,000 at any point during the year.
Every natural person whose gross income exceeded the relevant threshold at year-end: R95,750 for those under 65; R148,217 for those aged 65 to 74; and R165,689 for those 75 and older.
Representative taxpayers of any person in the above categories are also included.
Who does NOT need to file?
A natural person may be exempt from filing if their gross income consisted only of remuneration from a single employer that did not exceed R500,000, with PAYE correctly deducted; interest within the exempt limits, which is R23,800 for those under 65 and R34,500 for those aged 65 and older; exempt dividends where the person was a non-resident throughout the year; tax-free investment amounts; or a single retirement lump sum with tax deducted by directive.
Note that these exemptions fall away if the person received travel allowances (beyond the simplified rate), taxable fringe benefits, or any income for services rendered outside South Africa.
Individuals notified by SARS in writing that they qualify for auto-assessment are also not required to file manually, provided their income, exemptions, deductions, and rebates on SARS's records are complete and correct. As we covered last season in Auto-Assessment or Auto-Oops?, auto-assessment is not always accurate. Advise clients to check their assessments before accepting them.
Key deadlines
Companies, approved public benefit organisations, and approved recreational clubs must file within 12 months of their financial year-end. For all other persons, the deadlines are as follows:
Non-provisional individual taxpayers must file on or before 23 October 2026.
Provisional taxpayers must file on or before 22 January 2027.
Trusts must also file on or before 22 January 2027. Where accounts are accepted by the Commissioner under section 66(13A) and are drawn to a date after 28 February 2026 but on or before 30 September 2026 (i.e. entities with 30 June year end), the return must be filed within 6 months of the date to which those accounts are drawn.
All returns must be submitted electronically via SARS eFiling or at a SARS office by appointment through SARS eBooking at www.sars.gov.za. Companies must file electronically. Turnover tax returns must be filed electronically with the assistance of a SARS official at a SARS office.
What this means for your practice
Filing season is your busiest window and your biggest risk window. Now is the time to confirm which clients need to file, check exemption and auto-assessment status, and set your own internal deadlines well ahead of the official ones. Missing the 23 October date for individual clients is the kind of mistake that costs you relationships, not just compliance standing.
As a useful reference point, the 2025 notice on who needs to file follows the same structure as the 2026 notice, so you can use it to cross-check your client categorisation process before the season gets busy.