South African taxpayers have faced an absurd catch-22: to update the email address or cellphone number on your SARS eFiling profile, you first needed to log in to eFiling. However, if those details were outdated, you would be unable to receive the one-time password required to log in to eFiling, and you would be effectively locked out entirely.
The only solution? Book an in-person appointment at a SARS branch, wait weeks or even months for a slot, and hope you could pass identity verification checks that often failed because SARS had incorrect information on file. For the hundreds of thousands of South Africans living abroad who wanted to regularise their tax affairs or formalise their non-resident status, the situation was particularly nightmarish.
Now, the South African Revenue Service has introduced a reform that cuts through this bureaucratic knot. Taxpayers can finally update their security contact details on SARS eFiling without having to log in first.
The Problem Was Real and Growing
Consider the typical case: A South African professional emigrates to the UK in 2019. They had previously registered for eFiling using their work email and SA mobile number. Six years later, wanting to formalise their tax status as a non-resident, they discover both are long defunct. They cannot log in, cannot transfer their profile to a South African tax practitioner, and cannot submit outstanding returns. Despite wanting to comply, the system itself has become the barrier.
SARS branches reported mounting frustration from taxpayers in exactly this position. While the revenue authority hasn’t published specific figures on failed login attempts or verification backlogs, the Institute for International Tax and Finance has received queries from dozens of tax practitioners seeking assistance for their expatriate clients, who have been stuck in this administrative limbo.
The consequences were severe. Taxpayers locked out of their accounts continued to receive automated administrative penalties for non-submission of tax returns, as much as R1 000 per month, per outstanding return. Final demand notices arrived, threatening further legal action. Yet these taxpayers had no way to log in, file the returns, or even communicate with SARS to explain their situation. They were being penalised for failing to comply with a system they literally could not access. The injustice was compounded by the fact that many owed no tax at all; they simply couldn’t submit the nil returns to prove it.
How the New System Works
The solution SARS has implemented is elegantly simple: a secure, pre-login feature on its eFiling website that allows taxpayers to update contact details before accessing their eFiling account. Identity verification uses facial biometric authentication – essentially matching a live selfie against the photograph on file with the Department of Home Affairs. This same technology has been successfully deployed on the SARS MobiApp since 2021.
The process takes minutes rather than months, requires no physical visit to a SARS office, and leverages existing government databases to verify identity securely. It’s precisely the kind of digital-first thinking that modern tax administration requires.
Part of a Broader Modernisation Drive
This reform doesn’t exist in isolation. Since Commissioner Edward Kieswetter took office in 2019, SARS has pursued an aggressive modernisation agenda, investing heavily in digital infrastructure and data analytics. While we have recently seen a dramatic increase in AI used for the detection of non-compliance, this is one of the first examples to assist taxpayers and make compliance easier.
Internationally, South Africa is catching up to its peers. The UK’s HMRC and Australia’s ATO have offered remote identity verification and account recovery options for years, recognising that geographic mobility is a reality of 21st-century life. This SARS reform brings South Africa closer to international best practice.
From a revenue perspective, the logic is sound: removing barriers to compliance brings more taxpayers into the system voluntarily. Expatriates who have left South Africa but failed to formally cease their South African tax residency with SARS represent a major untapped pool for the revenue authority.
The numbers are significant. Estimates suggest hundreds of thousands of South Africans have emigrated over the past decade without properly finalising their tax affairs. Many remain technically tax resident simply because they couldn’t navigate the administrative hurdles for formal tax emigration. Some continue to earn South African-sourced income, such as rent that should be declared but often isn’t. Others may owe capital gains tax on the deemed disposal of their worldwide assets triggered by emigration, obligations they’re either unaware of or unable to fulfil without eFiling access.
This reform creates a genuine opportunity for these taxpayers to regularise their status. They can now regain access to their profiles, engage South African tax practitioners remotely, submit outstanding returns, and formally cease their tax residency where appropriate. For many, this represents years of unresolved anxiety about their tax status, and finally finding resolution.
For SARS, the opportunity is equally compelling. These aren’t hardened tax evaders; they’re ordinary people who left South Africa through legitimate channels but found the tax emigration process either too complex or literally impossible without the ability to log into eFiling. By making compliance administratively feasible, SARS stands to bring a substantial cohort back into the system, improving data accuracy, collecting outstanding tax, and ultimately creating a fairer environment where those who’ve left can properly close out their South African obligations. Making compliance easy is sound tax policy.
But Challenges Remain
The new system still has a significant blind spot: it relies on biometric data that many long-term expatriates never submit. South Africans who left the country before biometric capture became standard – or whose photographs are decades out of date – remain locked out of remote access.
SARS should now prioritise solutions for this group. The principle is clear: all taxpayers, regardless of where they reside, should be able to access and manage their tax profiles without requiring physical presence in South Africa.
There’s also the question of communication. Many affected taxpayers do not know that this option now exists. SARS would benefit from proactive outreach through tax practitioners, emigration advisors, and expat community channels to ensure those who’ve been locked out know there’s now a solution.
A Step in the Right Direction
At a time of growing public frustration with South Africa’s crumbling public institutions, practical reforms like these show that SARS is listening to taxpayers and using technology intelligently to improve service delivery. This isn’t a headline-grabbing policy shift – but it’s exactly the kind of operational improvement that makes life easier for ordinary people simply trying to do the right thing.
