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Navigating eFiling: Operational and Processing Essentials for the 2025 Filing Season
- 30 July 2025
- eFiling
- Priscilla van Niekerk
In today’s regulatory climate, accuracy, transparency, and digital agility are non-negotiable. As tax professionals, we must be equipped with the tools and foresight to lead confidently through the 2025 Filing Season. This includes a full grasp of submissions for personal income tax, trusts, and provisional tax—alongside effective use of SARS’s enhanced digital platforms.
With SARS continuously evolving its Online Query System (SOQS) and back-end processes, staying ahead on eFiling is more than smart—it’s strategic.
Compliance Foundations: Where Efficiency Begins
Before diving into returns, preparation is key. Essential steps like updating registered particulars, verifying bank details, assigning representatives, and activating relevant tax types (including IT3) may seem straightforward, but overlooking them can stall the entire filing process. Leveraging eFiling and SOQS helps streamline these steps for seamless submissions.
Trusts: The New Data Expectations
As part of SARS’s third-party data drive, trusts must comply with the IT3(t) submission requirement (covering IT3-01 and IT3-02). This mandates detailed reporting on distributions, loans, donations, and beneficiary information—separate from the annual ITR12T. IT3(t) data is used to pre-populate beneficiary returns and strengthen SARS’s ability to detect inconsistencies.
Deadline Alert: Trusts must submit their IT3(t) returns by 30 September 2025 for the period 1 March 2024 to 28 February 2025.
SARS Auto-Assessments & Income Tax Returns: Filing with Precision and Confidence
SARS is issuing auto-assessments between 7–20 July 2025. Though familiar, these assessments demand careful review.
Filing windows:
Non-Provisional Individuals: 21 July – 20 October 2025
Provisional Taxpayers & Trusts: 21 July – 19 January 2026
While filing may appear simple, eFiling surprises can surface—missing IRP5s, directive mismatches, or outdated banking details. Many issues stem from third-party data inconsistencies, but corrections via employers, medical aids, or financial institutions can resolve them. And yes, the system enables workarounds where needed.
Provisional Tax: Accuracy Matters
For the 2026 tax year, the first provisional tax return (IRP6) is due 30 August 2025. It should reflect 50% of estimated annual taxable income, with SARS expecting a reasonably accurate figure—at least 90% of actual taxable income or not less than the prior year’s assessed income to avoid penalties.
Webinar Invitation: Transforming SARS Interaction into Excellence
Join us for a practical and strategic session where we decode SARS’s eFiling and operational landscape. From foundational readiness to trust transparency and digital troubleshooting—this webinar empowers tax professionals to navigate the season with clarity and precision.
Don’t miss out and take the lead this filing season - register now.