{"id":38621,"date":"2026-07-02T14:43:43","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T12:43:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=38621"},"modified":"2026-07-02T14:43:43","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T12:43:43","slug":"sars-pays-out-365-mln-in-refunds-on-day-one-of-tax-filing-season","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sars-pays-out-365-mln-in-refunds-on-day-one-of-tax-filing-season\/","title":{"rendered":"SARS pays out  $365 mln in refunds on day one of tax filing season"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>The South African Revenue Service (SARS) says the start of the tax filing season has been successful, after the auto-assessment process got underway on Wednesday.<\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\">SARS confirmed that around 1.5 million taxpayers had been auto-assessed on the first day, with R6 billion\u00a0$365 million\u00a0 \u00a0in refunds already paid out. The auto-assessment process is expected to continue <span dir=\"ltr\">until July12<\/span>, with SARS targeting a total of 6 million taxpayers for auto-assessment this year.<\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\">To manage high volumes of users, SARS has introduced capacity upgrades to its systems, including a virtual waiting room on eFiling. Taxpayers are also able to raise queries with SARS via WhatsApp.<\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\">SARS Commissioner Johnstone Makhubu says the first day\u2019s results pointed to thorough preparation by the service.<\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\">\u201cWe were able to release around 1.5 million taxpayers out of the 6 million that we are going to auto-assess this year. The 1.5 million that was assessed today has already received R6 billion in refunds that were already paid out, and this is quite encouraging because it points to the fact that the systems and people preparation within SARS, and the engagements that we\u2019ve had with practitioners and taxpayers themselves, have proven to be a success at this stage. We\u2019ll continue to monitor over the next eleven days, from the <span dir=\"ltr\">July 1 to 12<\/span>, to ensure that the auto-assessment yields results as planned, meaning the auto-assessment of the 6 million taxpayers,\u201d Makhubu says.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\">&#8211;SABC&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":22133,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[],"class_list":["post-38621","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"SARS Commissioner Johnstone Makhubu says the first day\u2019s results pointed to thorough preparation by the service.","published_date":"","news_description":"SARS Commissioner Johnstone Makhubu says the first day\u2019s results pointed to thorough preparation by the service.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/38621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/38621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38627,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/38621\/revisions\/38627"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=38621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}