5 things to do before filing season opens

Last updated on 4th June, 2026 at 05:48 pm

A little preparation now can save you time, reduce stress and help you file with confidence when filing season opens.

You have FREE access to TaxTim to file your tax return. And this year, there’s even more reason to get organised.

Use your TaxTim benefit to file your tax return and stand a chance to win R10,000 towards your Tax-Free Savings Account. T&Cs apply.

Reading time: 5 minutes

In this article, you will learn:

• What documents you need before tax season opens.
• How to avoid common filing delays.
• Why organisation can help you file faster.
• How to activate your Sanlam Reality TaxTim benefit.
• How to enter the TaxTim competition.

Most people start in July with nothing ready. They click around, get confused by numbers they don’t recognise, close the tab, and try again in September. By that point, they’ve forgotten what they were looking at.

Instead, as a Sanlam Reality member, you should take advantage of your TaxTim benefit to make the process easier than ever. TaxTim works best when you arrive with the right documents. Five minutes of prep now saves two hours of frustration in July.

STEP1: Get your IRP5 – and check it

Your IRP5 is the tax certificate your employer issues at the end of the tax year. It shows your gross income, your PAYE deducted, and any benefits you received. You need it to file.

Your employer should load it onto eFiling by mid-May. Ask your employer for your IRP5 and compare it to your final payslip, February 2026. Mistakes happen – salary captured incorrectly, medical aid missing, a bonus double-counted. Catching it now, before you file, is much easier than a correction after the fact.

If you have more than one IRP5 (a second job, a directorship, a pension payout) make sure you have all of them. SARS gets them all. You need them all.

• Received IRP5 from employer – it’s their obligation to send you one
• Checked that the IRP5 figures match my last payslip
• Collected all IRP5s (second job, pension, directorships)

STEP 2: Pull your medical aid tax certificate

If you pay into a medical aid, you’re entitled to a Medical Aid Tax Credit. For the 2026 tax year, that’s R364 per month for the main member, R364 for the first dependant, and R246 for every additional dependant. A family of four – main member, spouse, two kids – gets R1,220 per month knocked off their tax bill. That’s R14,640 a year. Worth claiming.

But SARS won’t calculate it for you unless you submit the right certificate. Your medical aid scheme issues a medical aid certificate – usually available on your scheme’s member portal in April – May. Download it and keep it somewhere you can find it in July.

If you also paid significant out-of-pocket medical expenses (GP visits, dentist, medication not covered by your plan) keep those receipts. Once your qualifying medical expenses exceed a threshold, you may qualify for an additional deduction.

• Download the certificate from medical aid portal
• Gathered receipts for out-of-pocket medical expenses (if applicable)

STEP 3: Check your retirement annuity contributions

Contributions to a Retirement Annuity (RA) are tax-deductible up to 27.5% of your taxable income, capped at R350,000 per year. If you’re contributing R2,000 a month to an RA and you’re in the 31% tax bracket, you’re saving roughly R7,440 a year on your tax bill. That money stays in your pocket.

Your RA provider will issue a retirement annuity tax certificate showing what you contributed in the 2026 tax year (1 March 2025 to 28 February 2026). Log into your provider’s app or portal – Sanlam, Allan Gray, Momentum, Old Mutual, whoever holds your RA – and download it.

If your employer also contributes to a pension or provident fund on your behalf, that’s already on your IRP5. You don’t need a separate certificate for that.

• Downloaded RA tax certificate from my RA provider

STEP 4: Gather any additional income documents

SARS taxes all income you earned in the 2026 tax year, not just what your employer paid you. If any of the following applies to you, you need to declare it:

Interest income: If you earned more than R23,800 in bank interest (R34,500 if you’re 65 or older), the amount above the threshold is taxable. Your bank or investment account will issue a tax certificate, usually an IT3(b). Check your banking app or internet banking portal.

Rental income: If you rent out a property or a room on Airbnb, that income goes on your tax return. Keep a record of what you earned, and any allowable expenses (rates, water, levies, repairs) that you can deduct against it.

Freelance or side income: Invoices you issued, payments you received. If SARS gets it on a third-party data submission and you didn’t declare it, the letter they send you is not a pleasant one.

• Downloaded IT3(b) / IT3(c) from bank if interest income applies
• Noted rental income and gathered expense records (if applicable)
• Logged any freelance or side income received

STEP 5: Create a folder system for your tax documents

Every tax season, the same scene plays out. SARS sends a verification letter asking for supporting documents, and you have 21 working days to produce them. You open your laptop, scroll through three years of email attachments, dig through a drawer of paper receipts, log into four different portals, and try to remember whether you saved that medical invoice in January or February. The clock ticks down.

This is the part nobody warns you about. Filing your return is the easy bit. Producing the documents after SARS asks for them — sometimes months later — is where most people get caught.

Fix it now. Create one folder, somewhere you’ll actually find it again, and put everything tax-related in it as it arrives.

A simple structure that works:

• 2026 Tax Year
  • IRP5s
  • Medical aid (certificate + out-of-pocket receipts)
  • Retirement annuity certificate
  • Bank and investment IT3 certificates
  • Rental income records
  • Freelance invoices and proof of payment
  • Section 18A donation certificates
  • Travel logbook (if applicable)

It can live on Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, your phone’s Files app, or a labelled folder on your desktop. The format doesn’t matter. What matters is that everything for the tax year sits in one place, named clearly, ready to upload if SARS asks.

Do this once, and it pays for itself every year.

• Created a “2026 Tax Year” folder somewhere I’ll find it again
• Saved all certificates and documents from steps 1–4 into the folder
• Set a reminder to drop new tax documents into the folder as they arrive throughout the year

Know your Reality benefit before you open TaxTim

Sanlam Reality members get access to TaxTim as part of their membership, regardless of the tier. Before July, take two minutes to confirm which benefit you have and activate it.

Log into Sanlam Reality, go to your financial wellness benefits, and find your TaxTim benefit. Activate it from there. When you land on TaxTim, your benefit will be applied and your filing will be covered.

If you file before activating the benefit, you may end up paying out of pocket and losing the Reality points value. Don’t do that.

One more thing: If you’ve never filed before or you’re unsure whether you need to — the short answer is that most salaried employees earning under R500,000 with only one employer don’t need to file. But if you have a medical aid, an RA, or any additional income, filing is almost always in your favour. TaxTim will ask you a few questions at the start and confirm whether you need to file.

File smarter and stand a chance to win

Tax season doesn’t have to be stressful. If you arrive with these five things done – IRP5 confirmed, medical aid certificate downloaded, RA certificate ready, additional income documents pulled, and your Reality benefit activated – you’re already ahead of the game.

Use your TaxTim benefit to file your tax return and stand a chance to win R10,000 towards your Tax-Free Savings Account. T&Cs apply.

File with TaxTim today. Get money back