This July, millions of South Africans opened an SMS or email from the South African Revenue Service (“SARS”) and found that their tax return had, in effect, already been done for them. For some, this feels like a small miracle as there were no forms, no queues, no stress. For others, it raised an uneasy question: can I really trust a tax assessment I didn't prepare myself?

SARS rolled out auto-assessment notices between 1 and 12 July 2026 and reported on 2 July 2026 that it had already auto-assessed close to 1.9 million taxpayers, paying out an estimated R8 billion in refunds. For the first time, the programme extended to include eligible provisional taxpayers, not just salaried employees.

So, what exactly is an auto-assessment, and (the question on most people's minds) should you simply accept it, or take a closer look first?

What is an auto-assessment?

• An auto-assessment is SARS's way of completing your income tax return for you, using information it receives from third parties such as your employer (via IRP5/IT3 certificates), your bank, medical schemes, retirement fund administrators, and other approved data providers. Where SARS is confident that this data is complete and reliable, it compiles an assessment on your behalf and issues a Notice of Assessment (ITA34) without you having to log onto eFiling and fill in anything.
• It's important to understand that an auto-assessment is not a special exemption from tax, nor is it SARS "guessing." It's a data-matching exercise whereby SARS pulls together information reported about you by third-party institutions and calculates what it believes your tax position to be, based purely on third-party information.
• Not all taxpayers qualify to be auto-assessed, and SARS has explicitly stated that you will not be auto-assessed if your personal details on eFiling are incomplete, or if you earned income that isn't captured through a third-party institution, such as freelance, rental income, foreign income, or capital gains that weren't reported to SARS by a third-party institution.
• If you didn't receive an auto-assessment notification by 12 July, non-provisional taxpayers are expected to file their own return manually between 13 July and 23 October 2026 (22 January 2027 for provisional taxpayers and trusts).

Do you need to check your auto-assessment, edit it, or accept it?

• The point of departure is how confident you are that SARS has the full picture, and you are the only person who actually knows that.
• If your only income last year was your salary only, your tax affairs are straightforward, and you have no additional deductions to claim beyond what your employer and medical scheme already reported, then an auto-assessment that matches your own understanding of your affairs can be accepted as correct.
• If you agree with SARS’ auto-assessment, no further action is required (i.e. you do not need to click “accept”), the assessment will stand, and any refund due should follow shortly thereafter.
• But "no action required" should not be interpreted to mean "no action taken to check." The Tax Administration Act places the responsibility for the accuracy of a return on the taxpayer, not on SARS, even when SARS itself generated the return. If you do not correct an auto-assessment that turns out to be wrong or incomplete, you remain liable for the corrected tax (although not disclosed at that time), and in some cases for penalties and interest on understated tax when the correct tax is disclosed, even though you didn't personally compile the initial figures disclosed in the auto-assessment.
• This is why every taxpayer who receives an auto-assessment should at a minimum log onto eFiling or the SARS MobiApp and review their auto-assessment and the underlying data before deciding whether to accept it.
• If something is missing or incorrect, you must edit and resubmit your own return. Taxpayers may request a correction or file their own return up until 23 October 2026, provided the auto-assessment itself was issued on or before 27 August 2026. This remains true regardless of whether you’ve already received a refund from SARS or not. Should you have received a refund in line with your auto-assessment and some of your deductions are not reflected on said return, then it is likely that SARS should pay a further refund (for example). An alternative example is that, should the refund already received seem too high (discussed below), it is likely that some of your income has not been reflected, and you would have to return some of the funds to SARS.  

Things to look out for in an auto-assessment

Before deciding whether to accept an auto-assessment, you should review or consider the following:

• Income that might be missing.
  Did you earn anything beyond your salary during the tax year, such as freelance or consulting fees, rental income, interest from a bank account or investment which SARS may not have full visibility of, or a lump-sum payout? Auto-assessments are built entirely from third-party information, so any income not reported to SARS by a third-party institution will not be included, and it remains the taxpayer’s legal obligation to declare it. If the income is not included in the auto-assessment, and you do not correct it, you will be liable for penalties and interest once so declared; or if the incorrect position results in a refund, you must pay the excess to SARS once so corrected. We strongly urge taxpayers not to spend the funds if it is incorrect, as your estate will be unjustifiably enriched and the fiscus impoverished.
• Deductions you're entitled to but haven't claimed.
  Retirement annuity contributions, additional medical expenses not covered by your scheme, travel claims if you receive a travel allowance, or donations to registered public benefit organisations (with a valid Section 18A certificate) may not be fully reflected if the relevant institution hasn't submitted data to SARS, or if you have expenses SARS simply has no way of knowing about. The correction of deductions could decrease your tax liability payable or increase your refund. A reminder that all deductions must be underpinned by the necessary evidentiary framework.
• Medical aid and dependant details.
  Check that your medical scheme contributions and number of dependents are correctly reflected, as this directly affects your medical tax credit calculation.
• Banking details.
  With refunds being paid out within days for many auto-assessed taxpayers, it's worth confirming that the banking details on file are correct, particularly if you've switched banks or accounts recently.
• The refund or amount owed itself.
  A number that looks unexpectedly high, unexpectedly low, or simply unfamiliar compared to previous years is a signal to further examine the details rather than assume it is correct.
• Scam awareness.
  SARS has repeatedly warned that it will never ask for your password, one-time PIN, banking PIN, or eFiling login details via email, SMS, or phone call. Auto-assessment season is a favourite hunting ground for fraudsters impersonating SARS, so verify any communication through official channels such as the SARS website, MobiApp, or eFiling. It is important not to click on links in unsolicited messages.

The bottom line

An auto-assessment is a convenience, not a guarantee. It can save straightforward taxpayers a great deal of time and hassle, and for many South Africans this season it has already meant a fast refund with no paperwork at all. But convenience should never replace due diligence. Take the few minutes needed to log in, review the figures against your own records, and only then decide whether to accept or edit your auto-assessment. The choice and the responsibility that comes with it, remains yours.

Should you have any queries regarding your auto-assessment, kindly do not hesitate to contact our Tax Team.