If you file your own income tax return, the deadline for the 2026 filing season is 23 October 2026 for non-provisional individuals. Auto-assessed taxpayers who accept their assessment need do nothing, but anyone filing a return should not leave it to the last day.
SARS opened the 2026 filing season with auto-assessments issued from 1 to 12 July 2026. Non-provisional individuals who were not auto-assessed, or who need to correct an auto-assessment, can file from 13 July to 23 October 2026. Provisional taxpayers and trusts have until 22 January 2027.
If you were auto-assessed and the assessment is correct and complete, you do not need to do anything. If something is missing, for example additional income, or deductions such as medical, retirement annuity, home office or travel, file a return to correct it before 23 October 2026.
Once the deadline passes, an unfiled return is outstanding and a fixed-amount administrative penalty can apply under section 210 read with section 211 of the Tax Administration Act 28 of 2011. It runs from R250 to R16 000 for each month the return is late, depending on taxable income, and recurs for up to 35 months. Since 1 December 2022 a single outstanding return can trigger it, and because the penalty is for the late return itself it can apply even where no tax is owing. Where tax is owing, interest runs separately on the unpaid amount.
A separate point for anyone with older returns outstanding. If, for example, your 2025 return is still not filed, it was due on 20 October 2025 and is already late, so any penalty is already running on it. File it as soon as possible. Once a return is in, we can ask SARS to remit the penalty. The request is made under section 215 of the Tax Administration Act 28 of 2011, and SARS may remit under section 217, where the non-compliance is a first incidence or lasted only a short time, there were reasonable grounds, and the return has now been filed, or under section 218 in exceptional circumstances. A clean compliance history helps, but it does not guarantee remission: SARS expects the circumstances explained and the periods and amounts identified.
If you are a provisional taxpayer or a trust, your filing deadline is 22 January 2027. Send us what you have and we will prepare and submit it, provisional estimates included.
Sources: SARS Filing Season 2026 dates; Tax Administration Act 28 of 2011, sections 210, 211, 215, 217 and 218; SARS administrative penalty guidance.
Technical review: 19 October 2026. General information, not advice; confirm your own facts before acting.