TaxTim

What is TaxTim?

TaxTim is an online tax filing service that turns a South African tax return into plain-English questions with step-by-step guidance, then submits the finished return directly to SARS, the South African Revenue Service. The company says no tax knowledge is needed. It covers three SARS return types: ITR12 for individuals, IRP6 for provisional tax and ITR14 for companies. Around the filing flow sit TimAI, an AI tax assistant, and a helpdesk run by a human tax team.

TaxTim is operated by Human Robot (Pty) Ltd, trading as TaxTim, with its principal place of business in Cape Town, South Africa. The company traces the product to 2011, when co-founder Evan first tried SARS eFiling. TaxTim says a Cape Town team of chartered accountants and registered tax practitioners writes every question and calculator in the product and steps in when you need a human. The site footer states that it is supported by SARS Registered Tax Practitioner PR-0009352. A trade-press report based on a company statement says TaxTim has been acquired by a private consortium led by Twofold Capital, with deal terms not disclosed.

Core features

SARS eFiling import

• Shared access: Linking works like giving access to a tax practitioner, so your eFiling profile stays yours while TaxTim is added as the linked tax practitioner.
• Pre-filled data: Once linked, TaxTim pulls tax information and documents from SARS, including IRP5, medical aid, retirement annuity contributions and bank interest details.
• Access scope: The company says this shared access lets it read tax data and submit returns, but not change your password, lock you out or reach anything outside your tax profile.

Guided questions and built-in checks

• 1,300+ checks: When a return is ready, TaxTim runs 1,300+ checks for errors and missed deductions before it goes to SARS.
• Your confirmation first: No return is submitted without your confirmation of the completed return, given through the Submit to SARS button or in writing to a practitioner.
• One dashboard: Documents, deadlines, filing history and SARS correspondence sit in one dashboard.
• Plain-English letters: SARS letters arrive in TaxTim translated into plain English.

TimAI, the AI tax assistant

TimAI is a free AI tax assistant that is available any time and answers most tax questions with context from your return, while the human helpdesk handles eFiling profile checks, pulling SARS documents and paid extras such as reviews, calculations and disputes. TaxTim recommends starting with TimAI, which flags when a person needs to step in and hands over the background. Its answers are automated electronic feedback rather than formal tax advice. TimAI can open documents in your encrypted archive only when you expressly ask it to, not automatically.

Human helpdesk and after-filing help

• Response time: The helpdesk aims to reply within 24 hours, which can stretch to 72 hours in peak filing season.
• SARS verification and audits: If SARS selects you for verification or sends an audit letter, TaxTim explains what SARS wants, answers questions and submits the documents you provide at no charge, while reviewing documents for accuracy or compiling submissions or calculations is a paid add-on quoted up front.

Free account tools

Registering a free account gives you the dashboard, TimAI, reminders and tax tools at no cost. The free toolkit covers document storage, tax deadline reminders, an expense tracker, a vehicle logbook, a personalised tax report, a bank statement importer and a tax calculator app. A free auto-assessment checker tells you in 5 minutes whether to accept SARS's assessment or file your own return.

Guide

How filing with TaxTim works

1. Register a free account; you can start a return without paying.
2. Link your SARS eFiling profile by entering your tax number, ID number and your name exactly as it appears on your ID, then approve the one-time PIN that SARS sends by SMS or email.
3. Wait for SARS to verify the link in the background, usually within 48 hours.
4. Answer the questions and add any income or expenses that were not imported.
5. Let TaxTim set your tier as you go: if you add an income source or deduction that requires a higher tier, TaxTim notifies you and you pay only the difference.
6. Pay before you submit: you can work through the whole return without paying, but payment is required before it can be submitted to SARS.
7. Review the return once the checks have run, then confirm submission.

Use cases for TaxTim

• Checking a SARS auto-assessment: An auto-assessment uses only the data SARS already holds and, the company says, can miss deductions such as medical, retirement and home office costs.
• Claiming everyday deductions: TaxTim helps with common deductions such as home office, travel and medical-related claims.
• Keeping receipts during the year: The Expense Tracker stores receipt photos with each expense, shows what you can deduct and exports your records for SARS.
• Logging work travel: The Vehicle Logbook saves trips, fuel and maintenance expenses and gives a tax-relevant summary at year end.
• Provisional tax: Individual IRP6 covers people with income SARS does not tax at source, such as freelance, rental, investment or business income.
• Keeping a dormant company compliant: The Dormant Company ITR14 tier targets CIPC-registered companies that did not trade, for filing a nil return and avoiding admin penalties for non-submission.
• Disputes and complex matters: Paid expert services can include objections and appeals, foreign income, tax residency, crypto tax, missing records, outstanding returns, capital gains, SARS disputes and formal tax opinions.

Who is it for

Likely fit

• South African tax residents: The terms require users to warrant that they are a "Resident" as defined in the Income Tax Act.
• Small companies: Micro Business ITR14 is limited to CIPC-registered companies with an annual turnover under R1m and assets under R5m.
• Self-directed filers: People who are comfortable answering questions themselves and using written, online support.

Less likely fit

• You want someone else to do the work: TaxTim's own expert filing service is pitched at people whose return has more than one IRP5, such as rental income, freelance work, shares, crypto or foreign income, who have a year or two outstanding, who run their own business or who would simply rather pay someone.
• You need phone contact: All support is written or online, as described under Limitations.

Platforms

• Web app: Filing, the dashboard and TimAI run on the TaxTim website, which the terms say is owned, hosted and maintained within the Republic of South Africa.
• Progressive web apps: The Expense Tracker is a progressive web app that works on iPhone, Android, PC and more, and the Vehicle Logbook app is built the same way.
• WhatsApp: The terms define TimAI as available through the website and/or third-party communication platforms, including WhatsApp.
• WhatsApp limits: TaxTim may limit what TimAI can do through WhatsApp compared with the logged-in platform.

Pricing

TaxTim charges per tax return submission, and you cannot pick your tier: TaxTim automatically assigns the most affordable tier based on the income sources and deductions you declare. For an ITR12 tax return, the three tiers differ by which income types and deductions they cover.

Unless stated otherwise, displayed amounts include VAT at the standard rate of 15%. Pages disagree on entry prices: the homepage product cards show ITR12 from R249, IRP6 from R550 and ITR14 from R699, while the pricing page lists Lite at R215 and Individual IRP6 at R600. The partners page says packages start from R215 and are assigned automatically.

Partner discounts

• Sanlam Reality Club, Core and Plus members use TaxTim for free.
• Old Mutual Rewards discounts depend on tier: 30% for Tier 1, 37.5% for Tier 2 and 100% for Tiers 3, 4 and 5.
• FNB and RMB Private Bank customers can earn 50% back in eBucks on their TaxTim purchase.
• The free Nedbank Private Client offer is limited to the first 1,700 qualifying clients each tax season.

Paid help beyond filing

• Hands-on help with a return is priced on complexity, starting from R300, while expert tax services are quoted per matter.
• In expert filing, a registered tax practitioner completes your return, sends it to you to check and submits it to SARS, from R1,299 per return.
• The expert filing quote does not cover work arising from anything not mentioned when quoting, getting your records ready, tax advice beyond the return, SARS disputes, objections and appeals, or extra tax years.

TaxTim alternatives

The cost signals for SARS eFiling and an outside practitioner come from the typical-cost row of TaxTim's own homepage comparison, not from those providers.

• SARS eFiling and SARS MobiApp: SARS lets you file your own tax return via eFiling or the SARS MobiApp.
• Tax Consulting South Africa: This firm describes itself as specialist tax attorneys and tax practitioners dealing with all aspects of South African and international tax and tax law.

Limitations

Responsibility and liability

• You remain solely responsible for reviewing and verifying every return, calculation and other output before it goes to SARS.
• Where an error arises solely from TaxTim's fault, TaxTim will, at its discretion, use reasonable endeavours to correct it, and that correction is your sole and exclusive remedy.
• The terms exclude liability for penalties or charges levied by SARS and for any use of or reliance on TimAI responses.
• TaxTim is not responsible for late submissions if you complete your return less than 48 hours, counted in working days, before the filing deadline.
• TimAI may make mistakes, and users are expected to validate its outputs with TaxTim's tax practitioners before acting on them.
• Using the platform, TimAI, automated tools, help content or general support does not by itself create a professional tax-practitioner engagement.

Refund policy

• No refund is given when a return cannot be submitted because of circumstances outside TaxTim's control, such as SARS system outages, eFiling technical issues, delayed SARS integrations or SARS maintenance.
• No refund applies once more than seven days have passed since payment and you no longer wish to continue.
• Using the service and then accepting a SARS auto-assessment or estimated assessment also rules out a refund.
• Refunds are considered only where core services were not rendered or used; the preferred remedy is a voucher or account credit, and a refund to the original payment method is reduced by transaction charges of approximately 5%.

Data imports and SARS steps

• Imported SARS data can be incomplete: if you link before employers, banks and medical schemes have submitted their data, it may not be there yet, and certificates from institutions without your tax number may not appear, leaving you to enter them manually.
• TaxTim does not phone SARS or visit a SARS branch for you, and identity or biometric verification can only be done by you in person.

Support and user feedback

• TaxTim does not operate a telephone call centre or make outbound calls; support runs through the online helpdesk, SMS, email and social channels.
• On a South African consumer review platform, as captured on October 4, 2026, TaxTim had a TrustIndex of 5.7 out of 10 based on 44 company reviews from the last 12 months.
• That platform's AI-generated summary of recent reviews praises the guided questionnaire, imports, fees and TimAI, while frustration centres on ticket-only support, no phone line, delayed or inconsistent replies, and confusion around package pricing and duplicate charges.

Privacy and data handling

• The FAQ says your data remains on secure South African servers and is handled with POPIA compliance in mind.
• The privacy policy, however, says some service providers or their infrastructure may process personal information outside South Africa, and that TaxTim will not represent TimAI information as remaining entirely within South Africa unless storage and processing locations are confirmed.
• TaxTim does not use identifiable tax return information or identifiable TimAI conversations to train third-party AI foundation models unless you expressly agree, but it may use de-identified, aggregated or operational information to improve the service.
• Documents in the encrypted archive are not used to train AI models or shared with third parties, except to deliver the service or when compelled by law.
• Archive documents are kept for up to 5.5 years from upload and then destroyed, unless you delete them earlier or the law requires longer.
• TimAI conversations may be retained for support, security, error investigation and service improvement.
• Service providers can include cloud hosting, payment, analytics and security providers, tax practitioners and artificial intelligence service providers.
• TaxTim states that it does not sell users' personal information, while the website uses Google Ads remarketing to show ads to previous visitors on third-party sites.
• On security, TaxTim says its servers run on ISO 27001 compliant architecture provided by Amazon Web Services, with daily encrypted backups.
• To delete your profile, you ask the team through the helpdesk.
• Disputes under the terms go to arbitration in Cape Town under the Rules of the Arbitration Foundation of Southern Africa.

FAQ

Q1. Does TaxTim file my return with SARS for me?

Yes, after you confirm it. TaxTim submits the completed return through its link to your SARS eFiling profile, and nothing is sent until you approve it.

Q2. Can I choose a cheaper tier?

No. TaxTim assigns the lowest-cost tier that matches the income and deductions you declare, and moves you up if your answers add complexity.

Q3. Is TimAI's answer the same as advice from a tax practitioner?

No. TimAI's responses are automated feedback, may contain mistakes and do not create a professional engagement; the terms expect you to check material points with TaxTim's practitioners.