Provisional taxpayers who were auto-assessed by the South African Revenue Service (SARS) now have until 22 January 2027 to ask for a reduced or additional assessment. SARS moved the deadline in line with the provisional taxpayer closing date, and the extension covers auto-assessments issued on or before 24 November 2026.
The change was set out in Notice 7958, published in Government Gazette 55438 on 25 September 2026, according to Accounting Weekly. The Commissioner issued it under section 95(6) of the Tax Administration Act, 2011. BusinessTech also reported the new date.
## Who qualifies
Two conditions must both be met. The taxpayer must be a provisional taxpayer as defined in paragraph 1 of the Fourth Schedule to the Income Tax Act, 1962. The taxpayer must also have received an automatic assessment under Notice 7422 (Government Gazette 54598) that was issued on or before 24 November 2026.
A provisional taxpayer is typically self-employed or has more than one source of income, and pays tax in advance instalments during the year instead of having it all deducted through PAYE. Taxpayers who agree with their auto-assessment need do nothing, SARS says in its filing season 2026 guidance: “Auto-assessed taxpayers who agree with their assessment outcome do not need to take any further action.”
## What the new date replaces
In June 2026 SARS issued an earlier notice, dated 19 June, that extended the window for correction requests to 23 October 2026 for taxpayers covered by the 2026 Notice to Submit Returns, according to a tax consulting firm’s summary. SARS expected to issue about 6 million auto-assessments between 1 and 12 July. Individuals who are not provisional taxpayers file until 23 October 2026, while provisional taxpayers can file until 22 January 2027.
The September notice lines up the correction window for provisional taxpayers with their return deadline. Accounting Weekly described it this way: the extension gives provisional taxpayers the same deadline to correct an auto-assessment as they have to file their return.
## Why provisional taxpayers need it
An automatic assessment is built from third-party data that SARS already holds, such as IRP5s, and medical aid and retirement fund certificates. Provisional taxpayers’ income is often not in that data. Business income, rental income, foreign income and many deductions may not appear in it, so the assessment can miss them, according to Accounting Weekly. An assessment that is wrong and left uncorrected can mean overpaying or underpaying tax, and underpayment can attract penalties.
As IOL put it in June, “an automatic assessment is not necessarily a final or flawless assessment”, and people with freelance income, rental properties, investments or foreign earnings should check theirs closely. SARS had said earlier that eligible provisional taxpayers might receive auto-assessments for the first time in 2026. Provisional taxpayers were included in a trial in 2025, which widened in 2026, BusinessTech reported. Auto-assessments began in 2021 for standard taxpayers with simple tax affairs.
Practitioners are advised to identify which provisional clients were auto-assessed, check the date of each assessment against the 24 November 2026 cut-off, compare the assessment with the client’s full tax position and file corrected returns by the deadline. The tax consulting summary also warns that missing the correction window can turn a simple correction into a formal dispute, with objections, condonation requests and detailed justification.
## Other dates in the 2026 season
The 2026 filing season opened on 1 July. Provisional taxpayers can file from 13 July 2026 to 22 January 2027. Trusts have a separate window that opened on 19 September 2026 and also closes on 22 January 2027. SARS’s guidance for the season lists prepopulated data, simplified return forms, WhatsApp access to notices and statements, and improved eFiling navigation among the changes. It also notes that section 20A, the loss ring-fencing rule, now applies at the 39% marginal rate instead of the 45% maximum rate for years starting on or after 1 March 2026.
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