Received a SARS auto assessment? Here’s what you need to do next

Many South Africans have started receiving auto assessments from the South African Revenue Service (SARS)

Many South Africans have started receiving auto assessments from the South African Revenue Service (SARS) as the 2026 filing season gets underway, with taxpayers now being urged to check their notices carefully before taking any action.

IOL previously reported that the revenue service expects to auto-assess about six million taxpayers during filing season 2026.

SARS Commissioner Dr Johnstone Makhubu said the revenue service has also expanded its auto-assessment programme and will include an additional 200,000 provisional taxpayers with relatively simple tax affairs.

Auto assessments are part of SARS’ effort to simplify tax compliance by using data already submitted by employers, banks, medical schemes and retirement fund administrators to pre-populate income tax returns.