SARS extends critical deadline after downtime and glitches

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has extended the deadline for employers to file their monthly tax data after its systems experienced glitches and downtime this week.

The revenue service said that its systems had been hit with higher-than-expected volumes on Monday and Tuesday this week, leading to some taxpayers’ inability to access their filing profiles.

While the bulk of the downtime was reported on Monday (7 July), tax practitioners also complained of intermittent issues on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the system appeared to be stable and operational.

The downtime created havoc for many employers and tax practitioners on the deadline to submit their EMP201s.

EMP201 filings are monthly employee tax declarations by employers that contain payments of Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE), the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) and the Skills Development Levy (SDL).

Unfortunately, the filing deadline in July coincided with the launch of the auto assessments for the 2025 tax season, leading to system strain.

The submission of the EMP201 form must be done within seven days after the end of the month during which the amounts that were withheld from remuneration paid to employees.

Tax practitioners expressed frustration at the filing delays, noting concerns that they or employers would be penalised for late filing despite the issues being on SARS’ side.

However, the tax service allayed these concerns, announcing that the filing deadline would be extended to compensate for the downtime.

In terms of section 3 of the Income Tax Act, the commissioner for SARS has the discretionary power to extend the respective due dates.

In exercising that discretionary authority, the SARS Commissioner has extended the due date for filing and payment to Monday, 14 July 2025.

“We recognise that some employers experienced delays in submitting their monthly EMP201s, and as a result, we will consider not imposing penalties and interest on employers who would otherwise have been compliant,” SARS said.

It said that taxpayers are encouraged to submit their EMP201 returns before 14 July to avoid late penalties.