Here are the deadlines for the 2025 tax season

The South African Revenue Service has announced the filing dates for the 2025 tax season.

Notice 6217, which SARS published in Government Gazette 52712 of 23 May 2025, also states which taxpayers do and do not have to submit a tax return.

The filing dates for individual taxpayers and trusts are:

• Non-provisional individual taxpayers: Monday, 21 July to 20 October 2025.
• Provisional individual taxpayers: Monday, 21 July 2025 to Monday, 19 January 2026.
• Trusts: Monday, 21 July 2025 to Monday, 19 January 2026.

Individual taxpayers are not required to submit an income tax return if they are notified by SARS that they are eligible for an automatic assessment.

Auto-assessments

SARS will select for auto-assessment taxpayers who receive income from one or more sources of formal or informal employment and whose tax affairs are not complicated.

SARS will use the data it receives from third parties – such as employers, retirement fund administrators, and medical schemes – to complete the tax declaration on behalf of these taxpayers and issue them with an assessment.

SARS will notify taxpayers who have been selected for auto-assessment from 7 to 20 July 2025, via SMS and/or email.

If an auto-assessed taxpayer is due a refund, it will be paid directly into the taxpayer’s bank account within 72 business hours after the notification.

If the taxpayer owes money to SARS, it must be paid into SARS’s bank account by the stipulated date.

Auto-assessed taxpayers who are satisfied with the calculation on their tax returns do not have to do anything further, and the assessment process ends at this point.

Taxpayers who believe that SARS has not captured all the necessary information and/or that the return contains inaccurate information that might have affected the outcome must make changes on their tax returns and submit them to SARS through eFiling by 20 October 2025.

Who does not have to file a return?

A natural person (individual taxpayer) or an estate of a deceased person is not required to submit a return if his or her gross income consists solely of one or more of the following:

• Remuneration (other than retirement lump sums) not exceeding R500 000 from a single source and employees’ tax has been withheld for that remuneration.
• Interest from a South African source (excluding a tax-free investment) not exceeding:
• R23 800 for a person younger than 65 years at the end of the year of assessment;
• R34 500 for a person who is 65 years or older at the end of the year of assessment; or
• R23 800 for a deceased person’s estate.
• Dividends where the individual was a non-resident throughout the 2025 year of assessment.
• Amounts received or accrued from tax-free investments.
• A single lump sum received from a pension fund, provident fund, pension preservation fund, provident preservation fund, or retirement annuity fund and employees’ tax has been deducted in terms of a tax directive.

Please note that the above exemptions do not apply if an individual:

• was paid or granted certain allowances or advances relating to business travel, accommodation, or subsistence;
• was granted taxable benefits relating to the use of a motor vehicle; or
• received or was granted any amount for services rendered outside South Africa.

Who must file a tax return?

Individual taxpayers who met any one of the following conditions during the 2025 year of assessment are required to submit a tax return:

• A resident and carried on any trade (other than solely as an employee).
• A non-resident and carried on a trade in South Africa (other than solely as an employee).
• A resident and made capital gains or incurred capital losses exceeding R40 000.
• A non-resident and had capital gains or losses from the disposal of any asset.
• A resident and held foreign currency or owned assets outside South Africa that had a total value of more than R250 000 at any stage during the year.
• A resident to whom any income or capital gains could be attributed from funds in a foreign currency or assets outside South Africa.
• A resident and held any participation rights in a controlled foreign company.
• A resident who had a taxable turnover.
• At the end of the tax year, you were:
• under the age of 65 years and your gross income exceeded R95 750;
• between the age of 65 and 74 years and your gross income exceeded R148 217; or
• 75 years or older and your gross income exceeded R165 689.

If you were a non-resident and earned South African-sourced interest income, you must submit a return if:

• you were present in South Africa for 183 days in total in the 12 months before receipt or accrual of the interest; or
• the debt from which the interest arises is connected to your permanent establishment in South Africa.

Estates of deceased persons that received gross income must submit a return.

Notwithstanding any of the above, you must submit a return if SARS requests you to do so.

Companies, other juristic persons, and trusts

All trusts resident in South Africa during the 2025 year of assessment must submit a tax return.

A resident company or a resident juristic person must submit a tax return if, during the 2025 year of assessment, it:

• had gross income of more than R1 000;
• held assets with a cost of more than R1 000 or liabilities of more than R1 000 at any time;
• derived any capital gain or incurred any loss exceeding R1 000 from the disposal of an asset; or
• had taxable income, taxable turnover, an assessed loss, or an assessed capital loss.

Every company, trust, or juristic person that was not resident during 2025 must submit a return if it:

• carried on a trade through a permanent establishment in South Africa;
• derived South African-sourced income; or
• derived any capital gain or incurred any loss from a disposal of an asset.

Every South African incorporated or stablished company that was not a resident in South Africa during 2025 because of a double-taxation agreement must submit a return.

Companies, approved public benefit organisations, and approved recreational clubs must submit their income tax returns within 12 months from the date on which their financial year ends.

Disclaimer: The information in this article does not constitute financial planning, legal, or tax advice.