SARS (South African Revenue Service) is the autonomous agency established under the SARS Act of 1997 that administers tax, customs, and excise legislation on behalf of National Treasury. It collects roughly 90% of government revenue — personal income tax, corporate tax, VAT, customs and excise duties, fuel levies, and the various smaller taxes.
Most taxpayer-facing interactions happen through eFiling (efiling.sars.gov.za) — registering for tax, submitting ITR12 returns, paying provisional tax, requesting tax clearance, and managing PAYE/UIF/SDL via EMP201 and EMP501 reconciliations. The SARS MobiApp covers the main individual flows.
Auto-assessments now cover most salaried taxpayers from July each year. SARS pre-populates a return from third-party data (IRP5s, medical aids, retirement funds, banks) — taxpayers can accept it as-is or edit and submit a full ITR12 if they have additional deductions or income sources.