19 August 2026

Wow, how to keep you reading this newsletter given the topic? Tax returns? That's a tough one, but here goes!

Today's Money Spark - Tax Returns due soon

In South Africa, most self-employed women are provisional taxpayers, which means tax isn’t a once-a-year event. You usually have two provisional payment dates in the tax year: the first is due at the end of August, and the second at the end of February. There’s also an optional top-up payment by the end of September if your estimate was low and you want to avoid interest. Then you still file your annual income tax return during filing season, and the exact filing deadline can change each year.

Tax season has a way of switching on money strain behaviours you didn’t even know were waiting in the wings. It might start with cold realisation that it's that dreaded time of the year, and you might notice a new letter when you log into eFiling and go to Returns → SARS Correspondence → Search Correspondence. That little moment is enough to trigger the sudden urge to clean the fridge shelves.

Under pressure, avoiding behaviour looks like closing the tab and telling yourself you’ll deal with it “this weekend”. Scrambling behaviour looks like a late-night panic hunt for bank statements and missing invoices. And because you’re self-employed, there are often more moving parts than a straightforward payslip-and-IRP5 situation (lucky employees).

The good news is you don’t need a personality transplant to get through it. You need a painless way to start and one easy next step.

Painless, really?

1. Give yourself a "tax mini-session"

Pick one short slot in your diary, twenty minutes maybe. Make a coffee, put on music you like, and give that slot a name: “Tax starter session”. No pressure to finish anything. Your only job is to log into eFiling or open your tax folder and see what SARS is asking for this year. If you want a simple step-by-step guide to eFiling, this Nedbank article is quite friendly: Your guide to SARS eFiling. Nedbank Personal Banking

2. Make a simple list of what SARS wants

On paper, jot down the basics: bank statements, medical aid and RA certificates, business income, main deductible expenses. Do not fetch anything yet. Just name the pieces. Turning a vague monster called “my tax” into a short checklist already calms the Scrambling energy.

3. Do one tiny document task

Choose one item from your list and do only that. Download statements. File slips from one folder. Email your accountant and ask what they need from you and by when. Stop there, even if you feel tempted to push on. You are teaching your system that tax can be handled in small, safe chunks.

4. Decide who is helping you this year

If you know that tax completely overwhelms you, your brave move might be to get proper help instead of suffering alone again. Ask one trusted friend who they use, or contact a tax practitioner and ask what it would cost for your level of complexity. Sometimes the most grown-up tax decision is, “Hell no, I am not doing this by myself.”

Need a little help in technicolour? The digital download Freebie for today is a Tax Time Checklist, it tells you when what is due when, a SARS checklist for solopreneurs, and the emotional side of paying tax (crying into our coffee all the way!)

"In this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes" Benjamin Franklin

In my employed days, tax was the ultimate low-effort task: IRP5, eFiling, click, done. Check is in the mail. Now, with a business partner and a Pty Ltd, tax feels like an ongoing project. Every flipping single week, I have time set aside to capture expenses, documents to file, categories to get right, and an accountant in the mix. It’s definitely more complicated. I have had to study a whole lot of new content to avoid getting in trouble. I have measured the size of my study. I have trialed and deleted various accounting software packages and settled on a mega spreadsheet. I have debated whether the Tax Man will believe that one woman can buy so much stationary for her online business.

HOWEVER! As I am sure many of you know, the tax benefits to self-employment are fabulous. SARS definitely rewards us for taking the risk to put bread on our own table and tiling the roof over our own heads by letting us keep more of our own money. So get out there and get the admin done girls :-)

You do not need to love tax to handle it well. You just need to show up for a few small sessions, with a little less shame and a little more kindness. That already is a very different tax season.