E-hailing drivers are running real businesses, and SARS treats them that way. Uber and Bolt do not withhold PAYE on your fares — the tax bill lands on you, through the annual return and (for most full-time drivers) provisional tax. Miss a date and the penalties are automatic: 10% for late payment, 20% for underestimating, interest compounding monthly at 10.25% a year.
Here is every deadline from now to the end of the 2027 tax year, what each one costs if missed, and the record-keeping that decides whether your return is a refund or a fight.
Non-provisional individuals had to file the 2026 ITR12 by 23 October 2026. Provisional taxpayers and trusts have until 22 January 2027. Provisional taxpayers also pay: a top-up payment by 29 September 2027 (optional third payment) and the second 2027 payment by 28 February 2027 — which falls on a Sunday, so bank cut-offs matter.
| Date | What Is Due | Who |
|---|---|---|
| 23 October 2026 (Fri) | ITR12 for the 2026 year of assessment (Mar 2025–Feb 2026) | Non-provisional individuals |
| 22 January 2027 (Fri) | ITR12 for the 2026 year of assessment | Provisional taxpayers and trusts |
| 7th of every month | PAYE (if you employ anyone, e.g. a substitute driver) | Employers |
| 25th (or last business day) monthly | VAT (only if registered — compulsory above R1m turnover) | VAT vendors |
| 28 February 2027 (Sun) | Second provisional payment for the 2027 tax year | All provisional taxpayers |
| 31 August 2027 | First provisional payment for the 2028 tax year | All provisional taxpayers |
| 29 September 2027 (Wed) | Optional third “top-up” payment for the 2027 tax year | Provisional taxpayers (if the second payment fell short) |
Are you provisional? Almost certainly yes if driving is your main income: any individual earning income other than a salary — which describes every independent e-hailing driver — above the threshold must register as a provisional taxpayer. The filing is the IRP6; the payments are made with it (end of August and end of February).
Late payment costs 10% immediately, plus prescribed-rate interest of 10.25% a year compounded monthly. Underestimating the second provisional payment costs 20% on the shortfall if your estimate falls below 80% of actual taxable income. On a R30,000 liability, being one month late costs about R3,256 before you even start.
| Mistake | Penalty | Example Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Provisional payment one month late | 10% + interest | R30,000 → R3,000 penalty + ~R256 interest = R3,256 |
| Second estimate below 80% of actual | 20% of the shortfall | R20,000 tax shortfall → R4,000 |
| Both | 10% + 20% + interest | The compounding version — this is the expensive year |
The underestimation penalty is remittable — but only if you can show the estimate was made in good faith with a reasonable basis, not a guess typed in on deadline day. Keep the numbers you based the estimate on; a simple spreadsheet of monthly fares and expenses is your remittance argument.
Your taxable income is net profit, not gross fares. Every rand of legitimate expense tracked is 27% (or your marginal rate) off your tax bill:
| Expense | Deductible? | Proof Needed |
|---|---|---|
| Platform commission (25–40%+ of fares) | Yes | Driver statements |
| Fuel | Yes | Receipts or a fill-up log (apps help) |
| Maintenance, tyres, services | Yes | Invoices |
| Insurance (incl. e-hailing cover) | Yes | Policy schedule + payment records |
| Car repayment (interest + wear & tear) | Partially — via wear-and-tear/interest rules | Finance agreement |
| Phone/data used for the app | Business portion | Bills; reasonable apportionment |
| Car washes, cleaning | Yes | Receipts |
| Toll gates, parking | Yes | Statements/receipts |
| Traffic fines | No | Never deductible |
The deduction that does the heaviest lifting for full-time drivers is the vehicle itself: wear-and-tear on the car’s value plus the finance interest portion, both apportioned to business use. Which brings us to the logbook.
✅ The logbook is the whole ballgame. SARS can disallow vehicle deductions without an accurate record of business vs private kilometres. A full-time driver’s ratio is naturally high — but you still need the record. Log opening/closing odometer per day and note trip purpose; a driver app or cheap GPS log beats paper.
A full-time Johannesburg driver in the 2026 tax year: R396,000 gross fares, R99,000 platform commission (25% effective), R123,600 fuel at 2026 price levels, R28,000 maintenance and tyres, R18,000 insurance, R9,000 data and other costs. Net profit: roughly R118,400. After the primary rebate and tax thresholds, the annual tax on that is in the low five figures — not the R50,000+ a gross-income misreading suggests. This is why drivers who track nothing overpay SARS in the tens of thousands, and drivers who track everything keep it.
Model your own numbers in the FleetCalc profitability calculator to see net profit before tax, then use our expense-tracking spreadsheet guide to build the records that survive a SARS verification. For the full treatment of e-hailing tax, see our complete Uber & Bolt driver tax guide.
VAT registration becomes compulsory when taxable supplies exceed R1 million in any consecutive 12-month period. A full-time driver grossing R33,000/month sits at R396,000/year — comfortably below. But multiple-vehicle operators, fleet owners and drivers combining e-hailing with other transport income can cross it: at R1 million turnover, registration is not optional, VAT of 15% applies to fares, and monthly VAT returns join your calendar. Our fleet business guide covers the structure side.
SARS requires you to keep records of income and expenses for five years from the date of return submission. For a driver, that means five years of statements, fuel logs, invoices and the logbook — stored digitally, not in the cubbyhole.
The verification scenario to plan for: two years from now, SARS selects your 2026 return and asks for proof of the R123,600 fuel deduction. A driver with a folder of monthly statements and a filled logbook answers in an afternoon and keeps the refund. A driver with nothing re-files, repays, and pays penalties on top. The five minutes a week of saving statements to cloud storage is the cheapest insurance in this whole guide.
SARS issues auto-assessments early in the filing season, mainly for taxpayers with simple salary-only affairs. Full-time e-hailing drivers should be cautious: an auto-assessment built from third-party data will not know about your fuel, maintenance or commission deductions, and simply accepting it can mean paying tax on gross-ish income instead of net profit. If you receive one, do not accept it blindly — file a proper ITR12 with your full expense picture. The deadline rules still apply to the return you file.
Drivers operating through a company or CC with turnover under R2.3 million can consider SARS’s Turnover Tax — a simplified regime that replaces income tax, VAT, provisional tax, dividends tax and CGT with one tax on turnover. The 2026/27 tables tax the first R600,000 of taxable turnover at 0%, so a micro business turning over R800,000 pays about R2,000 for the year. Whether it beats standard individual taxation depends on your margins and structure — our full guides section and a practitioner should model both before you switch. The point for this calendar: turnover-tax businesses have their own return cycle (the annual ITT return within the same broad windows), so know which regime you are in before diarising.
Yes. E-hailing income is fully taxable and no PAYE is withheld on your behalf. Taxable income is gross fares minus legitimate business expenses (commission, fuel, maintenance, insurance, data), settled via the annual ITR12 and provisional tax if you earn other-than-salary income above the threshold.
Provisional taxpayers and trusts must file the 2026 ITR12 by 22 January 2027. The second provisional payment for the 2027 tax year is due by 28 February 2027 — a Sunday — so bank processing cut-offs make paying a day or two early the safe play.
A 10% penalty on the late amount plus prescribed-rate interest (10.25% per annum as of March 2026, compounded monthly). A R30,000 payment one month late costs about R3,256. Underestimating the second period below 80% of actual triggers an additional 20% penalty on the shortfall, remittable only if the estimate was made in good faith.
The business-use portion: wear-and-tear on the vehicle value plus the interest component of finance, apportioned by business kilometres against total kilometres — which requires a proper logbook. Fuel, maintenance, insurance and running costs follow the same business-use apportionment. Traffic fines are never deductible.