SARS apologises for downtime and glitches on tax day

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has apologised to taxpayers and tax practitioners who were left frustrated as its systems glitched on the first day of tax season.

7 July marked the opening of tax season 2025 in South Africa, with the revenue service sending out its first batch of auto assessments to taxpayers.

However, many were left frustrated because they could not log in to eFiling or the MobiApp to confirm or settle their assessments.

Adding to the frustrations, tax practitioners were also unable to process income tax filing and EMP201 declarations due to the system overloads.

EMP201 filings are monthly employee tax declarations by employers that are due on the 7th of each month. The filing deadline coincided with the launch of the auto assessments for 2025.

Angry and frustrated tax practitioners were especially scathing about the crash happening on the day these submissions had to be in, saying they now risk incurring penalties as a result of SARS’ system failures.

SARS gave no indication that the deadline for submissions has been moved, or that it would waive possible penalties for missing the deadline as a result of the system downtime.

Instead, the group asked for patience as it worked to resolve the issues, apologising for the inconvenience.

“Our system is currently experiencing unusually high traffic volumes. We value your experience and appreciate your patience as our dedicated teams work diligently to resolve the issue and restore full service as quickly as possible,” SARS said.

“We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.”

Auto assessment impact

The system downtime will have the most immediate and potentially damaging effect on tax practitioners on a deadline.

Taxpayers who have received notice of their auto assessment, but still cannot access the system, will still have some time to process it, but they are also on the clock.

Auto assessment notifications will be going out via SMS and email from 7 to 20 July 2025.

Once the system is back up and fully functional, taxpayers can check if they will be auto-assessed by the SARS Online Query System, or through eFiling and on the MobiApp.

SARS urged taxpayers to wait until they have been notified by SMS or email before flooding the system with queries.

If you agree with your auto-assessment, there is nothing further to be done. Should you not agree with the auto-assessment, you can complete and file your tax return by visiting eFiling or the SARS MobiApp.

The auto assessment notice will advise if you paid too much or too little tax in the previous financial year.

If the assessment shows that a refund is due, this will automatically be paid within 72 hours.

This means there is a narrow window to check and object to an auto-assessment before SARS considers it accepted and pays the total due.

Conversely, if the assessment finds that money is owed, taxpayers will be presented with a due a date to pay by.

SARS noted that if the refund or tax debt is less than R100, the refund or debt will be rolled over to the next tax year.

“This means that such a refund or debt is not payable immediately but remains as a balance on your account until it exceeds R100 and becomes payable,” it said.

Because the auto-assessment is completed automatically through information gathered from third parties, SARS warned that it is up to taxpayers to ensure that the assessment is complete.

“For example, if you received rental income or other income, or have deductions in addition to what we reflected in your assessment, you must file a tax return on or before the due date for non-provisional taxpayers,” it said.

The updated tax return must have the new information in addition to what SARS has pre-populated on your tax return.

“Keep any supporting documents for changes you want us to make to your auto-assessment, because we may ask for them,” SARS said.