Five eFiling Mistakes That Get You Audited (And How to Avoid Them)

## SARS doesn't audit randomly as often as people think Most verification requests are triggered by a **mismatch**: something on your return disagrees with data SARS already holds, or a number looks statistically odd for your profile. Fix the mismatches and your filing becomes quiet. These are the five that come up most for freelancers and small businesses in South Africa. ### 1. Figures that don't match third-party data SARS receives your IRP5s, IT3(b) interest certificates, medical aid certificates and retirement annuity contributions directly from the institutions. If your return says something different, the system flags it before a human ever looks. **The habit:** never type these numbers from memory. Open the pre-populated return, check each third-party figure against the certificate, and only correct it if you have documentary proof the certificate is wrong. ### 2. Suspiciously round deductions "R30 000 home office. R20 000 travel." Round numbers signal estimates, and estimates signal no records. Real expenses are R28 473,19. **The habit:** claim from a calculation you can show — a floor-area percentage, a logbook total, an expense report — and keep the working alongside the receipts. ### 3. A travel claim without a logbook This is the single most common disallowed deduction in South Africa. No logbook, no claim — regardless of how much you genuinely drove. **The habit:** record kilometres the day you drive them, with the business reason, plus opening and closing odometer readings for the tax year. ### 4. Missing supporting documents when SARS asks A verification request usually gives you **21 business days** to upload documents. If your receipts live in a shoebox, an inbox and a WhatsApp thread, that window is brutal. Missing documents mean the deduction is reversed, plus interest and penalties. **The habit:** store receipts digitally against the expense as it happens, keep everything for five years, and reply inside the window even if the answer is partial. ### 5. Accepting the auto-assessment without checking it Auto-assessment is built from third-party data only. It knows your salary and your medical aid; it knows nothing about your home office, your travel, your equipment or your professional subscriptions. Accepting it is often the most expensive click of the year for a freelancer — and once accepted, correcting it means a formal process rather than a quick edit. **The habit:** treat the auto-assessment as a draft. Compare it against your own records before you accept or edit. ## Also worth avoiding - **Filing late** — administrative penalties accrue per outstanding return, monthly. - **Filing a nil return you haven't verified** — a nil return that should have had figures is worse than a late one. - **Mixing personal and business banking** — it makes every claim harder to defend and every reconciliation longer. - **Changing your banking details carelessly** — refunds stall on verification and can take weeks to release. ## The pattern behind all five Every mistake on this list is a record-keeping failure that only becomes a tax failure at filing time. The people who never get flagged aren't better at tax — they simply have a trail: categorised expenses, stored receipts, kilometres logged, deadlines diarised. That's the whole job [Taxza](/apps/taxza) does, year-round rather than in February. And if you'd rather your practitioner handle the filing while you keep the trail clean, send them the [AI for accountants guide](/ai-for-accountants). ## If a verification lands anyway Don't panic and don't ignore it. Read exactly what's being requested, upload clearly named documents, keep it factual, and respond within the window. A verification with good records is administration. A verification without them is an assessment.