SARS published a notice on their website containing the individual filing season dates for 2020.

Please see below.

We are still waiting for the SARS Commissioner to publish the gazette prescribing who are required to file returns and who are not. Once this is available it will be communicated.

Update 06/07/2020

The SARS Commissioner published Government Gazette 43495 on 3 July 2020, prescribing who are required to file an income tax return before certain deadlines for year of assessment 2020 (1 March 2019 – 29 February 2020).

Natural Persons are not required to submit an income tax return if all of the below conditions are met for the 2020 year of assessment:

• if the gross income of that natural person consisted solely of gross income described below:
  • remuneration from one single source (employer) which does not exceed R500 000 for the tax year and employees’ tax has been withheld in terms of the deduction tables prescribed by the Commissioner,
  • interest (other than interest from a tax free investment) from a source in the Republic which does not exceed-
    • R23 800 in the case of a natural person below the age of 65 years,
    • R34 500 in the case of a natural person aged 65 years or older, or
    • R23 800 in the case of the estate of a deceased person.

• dividends received/accrued by a natural person which was a non-resident throughout the 2020 year of assessment, and
• amounts received/accrued from a tax free investment,

• was not paid/granted a subsistence allowance as contemplated in section 8(1)(c) of the Income Tax Act,
• was not paid/granted a travel allowance/reimbursive travel allowance, unless the amount does not exceed the amount by multiplying the actual business kilometres travelled by the prescribed rate per kilometre (R3.61),
• was not granted a ‘right of use of motor vehicle’ benefit as contemplated in the Seventh Schedule to the Income Tax Act,
• did not receive foreign employment income (remuneration received/accrued for services rendered outside SA),
• does not want to claim any income deductions or tax credits on assessment,
• is notified by the Commissioner in writing that he/she is eligible for automatic assessment and the person’s gross income, exemptions, deductions and rebates reflected in the records of the Commissioner are completer and correct as at the date of accepting the automatic assessment or does not respond to the automatic assessment before the submission deadline.

Natural persons are required to submit an income tax return if one of the below conditions are met for the 2020 year of assessment (subject to the above conditions):

• was a resident and carried on any trade (other than solely in his/her capacity as an employee),

• was a non-resident and carried on any trade (other than solely in his/her capacity as an employee) in the Republic,
• was a resident and had capital gains or capital losses exceeding R40 000,
• was a non-resident and had capital gains or capital losses from the disposal of an asset to which the Eight Schedule to the Income Tax Act applies,
• was a resident and held any funds in foreign currency or owned any assets outside the Republic, if the total value of those funds and assets exceeded R225 000 at any stage during the 2020 year of assessment,
• was a resident and to whom any income or capital gains from funds in foreign currency or assets outside the Republic could be attributed in terms of the Income Tax Act,
• was a resident who held any participation rights as referred to in section 72A of the Income Tax Act, in a controlled foreign company,
• was a resident and had taxable turnover
• was -
  • under the age of 65 years of age and whose gross income exceeded R79 000,
  • was 65 years or older and whose gross income exceeded R122 300,
  • was 75 years or older and whose gross income exceeded R136 750,

• every estate of a deceased person that had gross income

• a natural person who was a non-resident whose gross income included interest from a source in the Republic to which the provisions of section 10(1)(h) of the Income Tax Act do not apply, or
• every natural person that is issued an income tax return form or who is requested by the Commissioner in writing to furnish a return, irrespective of the amount of income or nature of receipts or accrual.

Natural person’s income tax filing season dates (subject to an individual who accept their auto-assessment in August):

• from 1 September 2020 - 22 October 2020 if the return is submitted electronically through the assistance of a SARS official at an office of SARS or manually,
• from 1 September 2020 -  16 November 2020 if the return does not relate to a provisional taxpayer and is submitted by using the SARS eFiling platform, or
• from 1 September 2020 -  29 January 2021 if the return relates to a provisional taxpayer and is submitted by using the SARS eFiling platform.

Automatic assessments:

Due to Covid-19, SARS is responding by rapidly enhancing its efforts to further simplify the tax return filing requirements for individual taxpayers.

Where SARS have the required information available (from third-party data for example employers, medical schemes etc.), SARS will be completing the tax return for you and provide you with a proposed assessment without the need of filing a tax return. This will enable you to view, accept or edit your proposed assessment from the comfort of your home or place of work using eFiling or SARS MobiApp.

This process will happen in August. You will receive an SMS if you are selected to be auto-assessed. If you accept the auto-assessment, any under or overpayment of tax will be processed as normal.

If you want to edit your return, you can edit and file your return on eFiling or the SARS MobiApp from September.

Please click here for more information.