The South African Revenue Service opened the 2025 tax filing season on 7 July, introducing a large-scale expansion of its automatic assessment programme. Commissioner Edward Kieswetter said 5.5 million taxpayers qualify for auto-assessment this year. SARS will send assessment notices in batches until 20 July, prioritising cases that are due refunds. Taxpayers are encouraged to use the SARS MobiApp, online query system or SMS and WhatsApp channels rather than calling the contact centre. Heavy traffic caused the agency’s eFiling website to suffer intermittent outages on Monday, forcing some users to delay submissions. SARS said the platform is being stabilised and that alternative digital channels remain available.