The individual tax year in South Africa ends at the end of February. That date matters more than most owners realise, because a handful of decisions only count if you make them before it passes. After the 28th the year is closed, and your options for shaping the tax bill shrink to almost nothing. So the few weeks before year-end are worth a deliberate check, not a shrug — this is the one window where you can still change the number.
Review your provisional estimate — this is the big one
Your second provisional payment is due at the end of February, and it has to be a reasonable estimate of your full-year liability. Get it wrong on the low side and SARS charges a 20% under-estimation penalty on the shortfall — on top of the tax itself. So before year-end, look at your actual figures for the year and true up the estimate against real numbers, not last year's guess or a hopeful round figure. This single review is where a year-end check pays for itself several times over.
The February provisional payment is the last real lever you have on the year's tax before it closes. Base it on your genuine year-to-date figures, not a finger in the air — that's the difference between a clean assessment and a 20% penalty on the gap you didn't see coming.
Retirement-annuity top-ups
Contributions to a retirement annuity are deductible within limits, and the deduction is tied to the tax year they fall in. You can deduct up to 27.5% of the greater of your taxable income or remuneration, capped at R350,000 a year for the 2026 tax year (SARS adjusts these annually). If you've got room in that allowance and the cash to spare, a top-up before end-February reduces this year's taxable income while building your own retirement pot. Leave it to March and it counts against next year instead.
Using your RA room before the door shuts
Say your taxable income is R600,000 and you've contributed R60,000 to your RA so far this year. Your 27.5% ceiling is R165,000, so you've still got headroom. A top-up before 28 February comes off this year's taxable income; the same rand paid on 1 March lands in next year's return instead. Same money, a year's difference in when the relief bites — check your remaining room before committing a lump sum.
Deal with bad debts before the line closes
Look hard at your debtors. An invoice you genuinely can't recover can be written off against income — but it needs to be recognised as bad in the year, not carried hopefully into the next one. Year-end is the moment to be honest about which debts are actually dead: the client that folded, the one who's gone quiet for eight months, the dispute that will never resolve. Get them off the books so you're not paying tax on income you're never going to see. Note the distinction SARS draws: a genuine bad debt you write off is one thing; a general 'doubtful debt' allowance is treated differently and more narrowly. So this is about the invoices you can honestly say are gone, not a blanket haircut on everyone who's a bit slow — keep a short note of why each one was written off, in case you're asked.
Stock and asset timing
- Stock: your closing stock at year-end feeds directly into your taxable profit — higher closing stock means higher profit and higher tax. So an accurate count matters, and obsolete, damaged or unsellable stock should be recognised as such rather than valued as if it's still worth full price.
- Assets you were buying anyway: if a genuine, needed purchase is imminent, its timing relative to year-end affects when the wear-and-tear deduction starts. Bring forward what makes commercial sense — but never buy something you don't need just to chase a deduction.
Timing a purchase you were already going to make
You need a new delivery vehicle and you're buying it either way in the next couple of months. Bringing that genuine purchase in before year-end can start the wear-and-tear claim a full year earlier. The key word is 'genuine' — the deduction follows a real business need, it doesn't justify inventing one.
The moves that don't work once the 28th passes
It helps to know which levers actually close on 28 February, because owners waste energy in March on things that no longer count. Once the year ticks over you can't: make a deductible RA contribution against the year just ended, write off a debt into the closed year, shift stock or asset timing backwards, or improve a provisional estimate that's already been submitted. What you can still do in March is file returns and pay — but the shaping is done. That's the whole reason this is a February job, not a June one:
- RA top-up: deductible only if the money is in before 28 February — a day late pushes it into next year.
- Bad debts: must be recognised as bad within the year to reduce this year's profit.
- Stock and asset timing: the count and any genuine, needed purchase have to fall on the right side of the date.
- Provisional estimate: your one chance to true it up and dodge the 20% penalty is the February submission itself.
Don't spend a rand to save twenty cents
It's worth being blunt about the trap behind all year-end "tax saving": a deduction gives you back only a fraction of what you spend — your tax rate on it, not the whole amount. Spend R10,000 on kit you don't need and you save maybe R2,700 in tax; you're still R7,300 poorer. Genuine, planned spending timed sensibly around year-end is smart. Buying things purely to cut the bill leaves you worse off, not better. Every move on this list only works because it's a real business decision first and a tax decision second.
Do the check with your books current
Every one of these moves depends on knowing your actual position, which means your books need to be up to date before the 28th — not reconstructed in June. That's the practical catch: a year-end review is only as good as the numbers behind it. If you want a proper look at your provisional estimate, your RA room and your debtor and stock position while there's still time to act, get in touch — but do it in early February, not late, so there are still days on the clock to move.
