With the tax season underway, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) has warned taxpayers not to fall prey to phishing scams.

Sars said there will be many attempts from scammers to mimic what the revenue service does and try to get personal details of taxpayers, or get them to pay money into an account.

“Members of the public are randomly emailed with false ‘spoofed’ emails made to look as if these emails were sent from SARS, but are in fact fraudulent emails aimed at enticing unsuspecting taxpayers to part with personal information such as bank account details,” reads the statement.

Examples include emails such as returns@sars.co.za or refunds@sars.co.za, which state taxpayers are eligible to receive tax refunds.

“These emails contain links to false forms and fake websites made to look like the ‘real thing’, but with the aim of fooling people into entering personal information such as bank account details, which the criminals then extract and use fraudulently.”

Know your dates:

Auto Assessments: 1 July to 12 July 2026
Non-provisional individuals: 13 July to 23 October 2026
Provisional taxpayers: 13 July 2026 to 22 January 2027
Trusts: 19 September 2026 to 22 January 2027

What do you need to know?

“A non-provisional taxpayer is typically a person who earns a regular salary or wage from an employer and whose PAYE is already deducted throughout the year.

“Usually, these taxpayers have simple tax affairs with no additional income sources, and they are either auto-assessed or submit their tax returns once during filing season every year,” reads the statement.

Provisional taxpayers, however, earn income in addition to a regular salary or from a different source altogether.

This could be income from a business, freelance work, investments, or rental income.