Tax and SARS knowledge base
Why is my ITR12 prepopulated with information I do not recognise?
Why is my ITR12 return prepopulated with information I do not recognise?
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Direct answer
SARS prepopulates an ITR12 with information it receives from third parties and with details held on your SARS record. This can include information from an employer, medical scheme, retirement fund or investment provider. You must check the information against your own records before filing.
If an IRP5 certificate on the return is wrong, SARS says you cannot change or delete the prepopulated IRP5 data yourself. The employer or other issuing third party must correct and resubmit its information to SARS. Other unfamiliar entries need to be checked with the relevant provider and against your own supporting documents.
What this means in practice
Prepopulation is intended to make the return easier to complete. It is not a statement that every figure is correct or complete. The eFiling guide specifically says taxpayers must verify prepopulated personal, contact, banking, IRP5 and medical-aid information.
Sometimes an unfamiliar entry is legitimate, and at other times the record may be wrong. Check the item against the relevant certificate or statement before deciding what action is needed.
The key distinction is who owns the data. You can check and maintain the information for which the ITR12 lets you make a lawful entry. But a tax certificate submitted to SARS by an employer or other third party should be corrected at source. Do not try to force the figures to agree by deleting or altering prepopulated IRP5 data.
Step-by-step
- Identify exactly what you do not recognise.
Note the tax year, provider name, certificate type, amount and any period shown. Do not assume all unfamiliar entries have the same cause. An IRP5, medical record and investment certificate can each require a different provider to investigate.
- Compare it with your original records.
Check your IRP5 or IT3 certificate, medical-tax certificate, retirement certificate, bank or investment statement and any other relevant records. Confirm whether you received the income, paid the contribution or held the product in the year of assessment shown.
- Check the latest data carefully.
SARS eFiling includes a Refresh Data function for third-party information, including IRP5, medical, retirement-annuity, investment and tax-free-investment data. Read the on-screen prompt before refreshing because SARS says Refresh All may overwrite prepopulated data and update the return type. Refreshing is not a substitute for resolving an incorrect certificate.
- Contact the provider that supplied the record.
If the record is incorrect, ask the employer, medical scheme, retirement fund, bank, investment provider or other issuer to investigate and, where necessary, submit a corrected record to SARS. Give the provider the relevant tax year and certificate reference. Keep its response.
- Recheck after the correction reaches SARS.
When the provider has corrected its submission, use the appropriate eFiling function to recheck the available data. Keep both the original and corrected evidence. If the filing deadline is close and the correction is unresolved, obtain tailored advice rather than inventing a workaround.
- Check your own profile details too.
The same review should cover personal, contact and banking details. If the unfamiliar information is a profile detail rather than a certificate, use the official SARS profile-maintenance route. Do not disclose passwords or one-time PINs to anyone assisting you.
Documents and records to keep
Keep the underlying documents for every disputed entry. These can include IRP5 and IT3 certificates, medical-tax and retirement certificates, investment statements, correspondence from the provider, and screenshots of the relevant return screen.
Retain the submitted ITR12 and the assessment notice too. If a provider later corrects a record, keep the corrected certificate and evidence of when it was issued. That makes it easier to explain a difference between an earlier return version and later SARS data.
Important limits and exceptions
Do not assume every field in a prepopulated ITR12 is locked. The rule in the SARS guide is specific: a taxpayer may not change or delete prepopulated IRP5 certificate data. Other fields have their own return and profile rules.
Do not assume an unfamiliar record is fraud, or that it should automatically be removed. Confirm the source first. If the underlying certificate is incorrect, ask the issuing provider to correct and resubmit it to SARS.
This article does not tell you whether a prepopulated amount is taxable or deductible. That depends on the certificate, tax year and underlying transaction.
When to get tailored advice
Get tailored help if you cannot identify the provider, the provider refuses or cannot correct an apparent error, the entry affects foreign income, a trust, business income, a capital gain or residency, or SARS has already started verification. A practitioner can help assess the reporting consequence, but the issuer still needs to correct its own third-party certificate where that is the problem.
TaxProof can help you sort the evidence and identify the appropriate correction owner. SARS and the third-party provider decide what records are corrected and how the final return is processed.
Related TaxProof guides
- Employer IRP5 and EMP501 guide
- Why does my ITR12 show more than one IRP5 certificate? (B01-IND-004)
- What should I do when my eFiling ITR12 shows a validation error? (B01-IND-010)