What is a SARS auto-assessment and why did you get an SMS?
SARS runs an auto-assessment programme at the start of each filing season for taxpayers whose affairs it considers straightforward. It uses third-party data received from employers, medical schemes, retirement funds, financial institutions and, increasingly, crypto exchanges to build a return on your behalf.
For the 2026 tax year, which covers income earned from 1 March 2025 to 28 February 2026, these auto-assessments are issued between 1 and 12 July 2026. The SMS or email tells you that an assessment has been prepared and directs you to eFiling or the SARS MobiApp to view the outcome.
Receiving the notice does not mean you must accept it. It means SARS has drafted a return using the data it holds, and you now have the chance to confirm or correct it.
SARS auto assessment 2026: what to do first when the SMS arrives
Before you tap accept, log in and open the actual assessment. The SMS is a prompt, not the full picture. Your task is to compare what SARS has assumed against what you know to be true for the year.
Work through this short checklist:
- Confirm your employment income and PAYE match your IRP5.
- Check that medical aid contributions and additional medical expenses are reflected.
- Verify retirement annuity and pension contributions appear correctly.
- Look for any income SARS could not have received automatically, such as rental income, freelance earnings or foreign income.
- Check whether crypto disposals are captured, as this data is often incomplete.
If the assessment reflects your full financial year and you have no additional deductions or income to add, you can accept it. If it is incomplete, you will need to edit and submit a corrected return.
Should you accept, reject or edit your auto-assessment?
There is no single right answer; it depends on whether SARS holds the complete picture. In practice, the decision falls into three paths.
Accept
Accept only when the assessment is accurate and complete. Salaried taxpayers with a single employer, standard medical aid and a retirement annuity often fall into this group. If a refund is due, it is generally paid within a few business days once banking details are verified.
Edit and submit
If deductions are missing or income is understated, do not accept. From 13 July 2026 you can open the return, add the missing information and submit it as a full ITR12. This replaces the auto-assessment with your corrected version. Common additions include home office costs, additional medical expenses, travel claims and rental figures. Our guide to tax deductions you might be missing is worth reading before you file.
Do not simply ignore it
Relying on an auto-assessment without checking it carries real risk. We cover this in detail in the hidden risks of relying solely on SARS auto-assessments. An assessment that looks favourable may simply be missing income SARS will later match to you.
What are the key 2026 filing season dates you need to know?
Timing matters, because missing a deadline triggers recurring penalties. Here are the dates for the 2026 season.
- Auto-assessments issued: 1 to 12 July 2026
- Filing season opens for manual returns and edits: 13 July 2026
- Deadline for non-provisional taxpayers: 23 October 2026
- Deadline for provisional taxpayer ITR12: 22 January 2027
Provisional taxpayers also submit IRP6 returns during the year, with the first period due on the last business day of August and the second on the last business day of February. If you edit your auto-assessment, do so within the window that applies to your taxpayer category.
What if SARS missed your crypto or foreign income?
Auto-assessments rely on the data SARS can collect. Crypto is the area where that data is most likely to be incomplete, because local exchanges do not issue the same standardised tax certificates that banks provide.
We explain this gap in why IT3(b) and IT3(c) forms are not supplied by crypto platforms like AltCoinTrader. If you traded or disposed of crypto during the year, your auto-assessment may not reflect those gains or losses. You are still responsible for declaring them, and our article on the impact of crypto losses on your tax return can help you understand the treatment.
SARS receives third-party data from financial institutions and crypto exchanges, and it participates in international exchange-of-information frameworks. Foreign income and offshore holdings are increasingly visible to SARS even when they do not appear in your draft assessment. If your residency status is uncertain, our overview of tax residency in South Africa is a useful starting point.
What happens if you accept an incorrect auto-assessment?
Accepting an assessment that understates your income does not close the matter. SARS can match its data later and raise an additional assessment, sometimes with interest and penalties attached. Under-declaring income, whether by accident or omission, is one of the patterns we describe in common red flags that trigger SARS audits.
On the other side, an assessment that overstates your tax because a deduction was left out means you may pay more than you should. Either way, the correction is your responsibility. Reviewing the numbers before you accept is the simplest way to avoid a dispute months later.
If you have already accepted an assessment and then realise it was wrong, you can request a correction or lodge an objection within the applicable periods. This is worth confirming with a professional, since the route depends on how far the assessment has progressed.
What if you miss the deadline entirely?
If you neither accept nor edit your auto-assessment and the season closes, SARS generally treats the auto-assessment as your final assessment. Where a return remains outstanding, SARS applies administrative penalties that recur monthly and scale with your taxable income. These add up quickly.
If you are already past a deadline, act rather than wait. Our guide on what to do if you miss the tax deadline sets out the practical steps. The longer an outstanding return sits, the larger the penalty exposure becomes.
Get help with your 2026 auto-assessment
Every taxpayer’s situation is different, and the right decision on your auto-assessment depends on the detail of your income and deductions. If you would like us to review your assessment before you accept or edit it, book a call and we will walk through your circumstances with you.
You are also welcome to email info@chconsulting.co.za with any questions about your 2026 return, crypto reporting or provisional tax obligations.
