Africa-Press – South-Africa. SARS has introduced a new ‘Express Access’ feature on its eFiling platform to simplify tax compliance for the 2025 tax season, allowing over five million auto-assessed taxpayers to view, update, and manage their tax affairs easily.
With tax season quickly approaching, Tshepo Thebyane, senior tax consultant at Tax Consulting South Africa, said that the revenue service has made filing more accessible.
“By implementing the ‘Express Access’ feature for taxpayers using the eFiling platform, SARS has put itself in the shoes of taxpayers to enable a more seamless tax submission experience,” Thebyane said.
The dedicated feature is designed to make it easy for the more than 5 million taxpayers who will be auto-assessed.
Using this feature, taxpayers can view their auto-assessment, check their tax compliance status, whether they have any outstanding tax debt, and whether any previous tax returns are outstanding.
Tax practitioners said that ‘Express Access’ is set to enhance and reduce any complexities that taxpayers previously experienced in navigating SARS systems.
Now, taxpayers can address their current and retrospective tax compliance matters and update their personal details, which, if not updated accordingly, could hamper the auto-assessment and refund processes.
Thebyane said that people should be aware that the Tax Administration Act compels them to update their personal details within 21 working days from the time any personal changes occur.
This includes physical address, contact details, and banking details. “By using the ‘Express Access’ tool, it will be easier for those taxpayers who would be selected for auto-assessments to view the respective assessments,” Thebyane added.
“They can either elect to accept or reject the assessment, based on whether all income earned during the 2025 tax period has been accordingly declared on the assessment.”
SARS will start rolling out auto-assessments on 7 July 2025. The assessment year is for the tax period from 1 March 2024 to 28 February 2025.
Compliance is key
According to Thebyane, the ability to address previous non-compliance is another perk of SARS’s Express Access feature.
This can be rather useful to any taxpayer who would not otherwise know how to navigate the eFiling platform. Ordinarily, they have incurred penalties for outstanding tax returns.
On several occasions, SARS has stressed the importance of compliance. The tax authority moves from the premise that taxpayers are honest and want help to meet their legal obligations.
To do so, SARS provides clarity and certainty to taxpayers regarding their obligations and makes it easy and seamless for them to transact with the organisation. ‘Express Access’ speaks to this undertaking.
“This feature should prove to be a major win for both SARS in boosting their collection efforts, as well as for all the taxpayers adhering to their compliance obligations and ensuring they are on SARS’ right side,” Thebyane said.
SARS said nearly 5 million taxpayers benefited from auto-assessment in the previous tax year. These individuals have less complicated tax matters and do not have to file a tax return.
The taxman reconciled their tax affairs using third-party data from sources such as employers, financial institutions, retirement annuity fund administrators, and medical-aid schemes.
This enables SARS to complete the tax declaration for this segment of taxpayers and issue them with an auto-assessment.
In the previous tax year, the uptake of auto-assessments was above 98%, with those who made actual changes representing less than 1% of auto-assessed taxpayers.
Thebyane said taxpayers who are auto-assessed have until 20 October 2025 to query, make changes, or add additional income to the auto-assessment.
Key filing season dates for 2025 are as follows:
7–20 July 2025: Auto-assessment notifications sent by SARS
21 July 2025 – 20 October 2025: Filing period for non-provisional individual taxpayers
20 September 2025 – 19 January 2026: Filing period for Trusts
21 July 2025 – 19 January 2026: Filing period for Provisional taxpayers
“We have seen SARS Commissioner Edward Kieswetter’s efforts in ensuring compliance by advancing collection methods that are more acceptable to taxpayers, such as the SMS and calls approach,” Thebyane said.
This has now advanced to the ‘Express Access’ feature. To ensure an accurate review of your automated assessment, he advised taxpayers to seek professional assistance from a trusted and knowledgeable tax practitioner.
This is especially important because SARS is becoming increasingly rigorous with its verification and audit processes. It has often opted to revisit past assessments to account for any previously undeclared earnings.
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