SARS announces full list of changes for Tax Season 2025

South Africa’s 2025 Tax Season has officially launched, with Monday (7 July) marking the starting date for the South African Revenue Service (SARS) auto assessments to start rolling out.

SARS said that auto assessments will be sent in batches over the next two weeks, running from 7 July to 20 July.

From 21 July, the window for manual filing of tax returns by individual taxpayers, provisional and non-provisional, and trusts will open.

The revenue service has already announced several significant changes that taxpayers need to be aware of, including a wider net for auto assessments.

As previously communicated, some provisional taxpayers will be invited to take part in auto assessments in 2025.

SARS announced the introduction of a new “Provisional Taxpayer Auto Assessment Request” service to its Online Query System.

This allows eligible provisional taxpayers who have received corresponding notifications from SARS to request inclusion in the auto assessment population for the 2025 year of assessment.

All auto-assessed taxpayers will be alerted via SMS or email and should check their assessment status on eFiling or the MobiApp.

Be wary of any scams or fraud, with criminal activity expected to be elevated during the filing period.

Other changes revolve around South African expats who now need to indicate whether they have reinstated tax residency or not.

This should also be considered by expats who do not intend to reinstate their South African residency as a sign to double-check their current status.

Any expats who have left South Africa but did not formally end their tax residency could still be considered tax residents by SARS, which could lead to complications should they ever return.

But these are only a few of SARS’s many changes for the 2025 tax season. The service has outlined all the other changes that taxpayers should be aware of.

Tax season 2025 dates

Changes for 2025 Filing Season

Section 6quat

With effect from 1 March 2025, section 6quat of the Income Tax Act (the ITA) has been amended to allow taxpayers to fully use foreign tax credits for the taxes paid on capital gains in the foreign jurisdiction to the same extent as the taxes paid in South Africa on the same gains.

From the 2025 tax year, SARS will maintain any unused foreign tax credits to be carried forward automatically in the subsequent years of assessment, up to six years.

Section 11(nA) and 11(nB)

With effect from 1 March 2025, employers must report sections 11(nA) and 11(nB) of the ITA details on the IRP5/IT3(a) certificate.

These changes will affect the ITR12 tax return so that section 11(nA) source code 4042 will be reflected on the IRP5/IT3(a) tax certificate, and a new source code 4058 relating to section 11(nB) will be reflected in the “Other Deduction” field.

Definition of “Provisional Taxpayer” in Paragraph 1 of the Fourth Schedule

With effect from 1 March 2025, a labour broker who received an approved certificate of exemption will be included in the definition of a provisional taxpayer.

This means that these labour brokers must comply with provisional taxpayer requirements such as submitting IRP6 tax returns.

Section 12H Learnership Agreement

The section 12H (of the ITA) Learnership Agreement termination date has been extended from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2027.

Allowable Interest Expenses on Foreign Interest in Terms of Practice Note 31

The “Allowable interest expenses incurred in the production of interest received” line item has been introduced within the “Foreign Interest” container of the ITR tax return to align with Practice Note 31.

Backdated (Antedated) Salaries and Pensions

The ITR12 tax return for backdated (antedated) salaries and pensions has been amended to include new source codes 3623 and 3673.

Section 10(1)(i) interest exemption

For section 10(1)(i) (of the ITA) exemption to be applied correctly, the executor will be able to declare the “Interest Earned Date From” and “Interest Earned Date To” within the investment-income container on the deceased estate tax return where such date exceeds the year of assessment during which the taxpayer became deceased.

Exempt Local and Foreign Dividends

Two new source codes have been introduced for local (source code 4306) and foreign (source code 4307) dividends within the non-taxable container on the ITR12 tax return.

Trust Income Changes

From the 2025 tax year, SARS will apply a 50% communal estate where income from a trust is declared, and the taxpayer is married in community of property.

Unused Balances such as Section 11F, Section 18A, Section 20

SARS will print the note given below on the ITA34, in instances where unused balances are not automatically carried over to the subsequent year of assessment: 

SARS did not consider carryover/brought forward amounts as the current return is under the verification review.

Once the verification case is finalised, SARS will initiate the amendment of the return to take the carryover/brought forward amount into account.

Enhancement Of Banking Details

To enhance user experience with the Registration, Amendments, and Verification Form (RAV01) form and the ITR12 tax return, taxpayers will be presented with a list of their verified banking details available to SARS.

Taxpayers must select this information when updating their bank-account details rather than manually capturing it.