SARS eFiling 2026: How to File Your Tax Return Online (Complete Beginner’s Guide)

Select Individual. Enter your South African ID number (or passport number if you’re a foreign national). eFiling will verify your identity against the Department of Home Affairs database automatically.

Provide your full name, surname, date of birth, email address, and cell phone number. Use an email address and phone number you actively check — SARS sends OTPs and assessment notifications here. Get this right now or you’ll need to update it at a branch later.

Create a strong, unique password. Write it down somewhere safe — SARS’s account recovery process is not instant if you lose access. Your username cannot be changed later.

SARS will send a one-time PIN (OTP) to your registered cell number and/or email. Enter it to confirm your identity. If you don’t receive it within a few minutes, check your spam folder or try the “Resend OTP” option.

If you’ve ever been registered for PAYE through an employer, SARS already has a tax number for you. eFiling will ask you to link it. If you’ve genuinely never registered, the system will register you automatically. Your tax reference number is also on your IRP5 certificate.

You’re in. From here you can manage all your tax obligations online. You only do this registration once — next year, you just log in.

Enter your username and password. Complete the OTP verification. Once inside, click Returns in the top menu, then Returns Issued, then Income Tax (ITR12).

Select the 2026 year of assessment from the dropdown and click Request Return. The ITR12 will be generated for you. Then click Open to begin.

The first page of the ITR12 is a wizard — a series of yes/no questions that customises your form to show only the sections relevant to your situation. Be accurate here. If you answer “No” to a question about rental income and you have rental income, that section won’t appear and your return will be incomplete. Mandatory fields display in red.

SARS pre-fills your return with information received from your employer (IRP5), your bank (interest), your medical aid, and your retirement fund. Cross-reference each pre-populated field against the physical certificates you gathered. If anything is missing or wrong — especially RA contributions — manually add or correct the figures. A warning message will appear when you open the return reminding you that SARS regularly receives new third-party data; click OK and proceed.

This is where most first-time filers leave money on the table. The main deductions available to salaried individuals include: retirement annuity contributions (up to 27.5% of income or R350,000, whichever is lower), qualifying medical expenses not covered by medical aid, donations to registered public benefit organisations (up to 10% of taxable income), and home office expenses if you worked from home for a portion of the year under specific qualifying conditions.

Before you submit, navigate to your eFiling profile and confirm that SARS has your correct bank account details. If they’re wrong or missing, a refund due to you will be delayed. To update banking details, you first need your security contact details (email and cell number) to be current — SARS uses these to verify changes.

Once all red (mandatory) fields are complete, click File Return. Read the Taxpayer Declaration carefully — you are signing to confirm all the information is true and correct. SARS will immediately generate a Notice of Assessment (ITA34), which shows whether you owe SARS money or are due a refund. Save or print this document.

If SARS owes you a refund, it is typically paid within 72 hours directly into your registered bank account. If you owe SARS, the payment due date will be shown on your ITA34. You can pay via eFiling, the SARS MobiApp, or EFT to SARS’s bank account. If you cannot pay in full, set up a payment arrangement on eFiling rather than ignoring it — interest and penalties accumulate quickly.