Raphael Georgiades Financial Advisory

Five things to check before you accept that SARS auto-assessment

1. Doing nothing means you agree: If you receive an auto-assessment and don’t respond, SARS treats that as acceptance. That may be fine if everything is correct, but costly if it’s not.

2. SARS may not know about all your income: Auto-assessments are based on third-party data. SARS may not automatically know about freelance work, side-hustle income, rental income, foreign income or other self-employment income.

3. SARS may also miss deductions: Missing deductions mean you could leave money on the table. Check whether your retirement annuity contributions, Section 18A donations, qualifying out-of-pocket medical expenses, home-office expenses or travel claims have been included, where applicable.

4. You cannot always fix third-party errors yourself: If your IRP5, medical aid certificate or retirement fund certificate is wrong, you may need the employer, scheme or fund to correct and resubmit the information to SARS. Don’t simply assume you can edit everything on the return.

5. Be careful if your tax life is no longer simple: If you made a two-pot retirement withdrawal, had more than one IRP5, earned bank interest above the annual exemption, sold investments, received foreign dividends or have rental income, your tax position may be more complicated than you think.