Pretoria, 29 October 2018 – Individual taxpayers have 48 hours left to file their personal income tax returns before tax season closes on Wednesday, 31 October.

The deadline applies to non-provisional taxpayers and for those provisional taxpayers who opt to file at a branch.  Provisional[i] taxpayers using eFiling have until 31 January 2019 to file.

Taxpayers are encouraged to heed the 48-hour call and opt for the eFiling channel to submit their returns.  eFiling has experienced 99.7% uptime during Tax Season and is geared to receive the large volumes of returns that can easily spike to 150 000 submissions daily when Tax Season hits its last two days.

The SARS Contact Centre is available from 08:00 to 18:00 to assist taxpayers to file online as well as to field any taxpayer queries on personal income tax returns.  Help-You-eFile – a function on eFiling that connects taxpayers to a qualified SARS tax agent – is also available from 08:00 to 18:00.

SARS has sent reminders to taxpayers who still need to file. After the deadline, administrative penalties will be applied to late returns ranging between R250 and R15 000. This year, eighteen taxpayers were prosecuted for not submitting their tax returns as part of SARS’ outstanding tax return campaign.

Employers are also reminded that the deadline for submissions as part of the Employer Interim Reconciliation period also closes on 31 October 2018.

Important contact details: