I am facing a tax audit. What documents should I prepare?

How to use this guide

Do not begin with a generic folder called “tax documents” and do not send every file you can find. A verification request, Notification of Audit, later request for relevant material and Audit Findings Letter are different stages. Each needs a pack selected for that letter. If you have not yet authenticated and classified the correspondence, use the SARS audit-letter first-response guide before choosing evidence.

Put the controlling documents at the front

Create a small control section that makes it impossible to confuse the case. Include:

1. the latest authentic SARS letter and any earlier letter needed to understand it;
2. proof of when the letter was delivered or retrieved;
3. the taxpayer name, tax reference, case number, tax type and periods;
4. the stated due date and any written extension actually granted;
5. the filed return, declaration or schedule being examined;
6. the relevant assessment or statement where it helps identify the filed position;
7. the name and authority of the person instructing, approving and submitting; and
8. a verbatim list of every item SARS requested.

Retrieve the issued correspondence from the official account or channel where possible. A forwarded email, screenshot or adviser summary can be useful working evidence, but it should not replace the letter that controls scope and timing.

Separate verification, audit and findings material

SARS describes verification as a comparison of a declaration against financial and non-financial information. An audit is a more extensive examination and begins through the audit process reflected in SARS correspondence. A referral for audit is not itself the same as a Notification of Audit allocating an auditor.

Label the pack accordingly:

• Verification: provide the supporting material requested for the declaration and period, plus any required explanation or authorised correction decision.
• Audit: address the initial scope in the Notification of Audit and each later written request for relevant material.
• Audit findings: answer the proposed adjustments, material facts and grounds in the findings letter; do not relabel the findings response as an objection.
• Assessment: stop using a pre-assessment evidence checklist as the procedural guide and identify the correct reasons or dispute route.

The deadline must come from the particular letter and any valid written change. A timeframe associated with findings is not automatically the deadline for an earlier verification request, and asking for clarification or more time does not itself suspend the active date.

Select source records that prove the filed position

The right evidence depends on what was declared and what SARS asked. Common categories can include:

• contracts, orders, invoices, credit notes and delivery evidence;
• bank statements and payment records linked to the transaction rather than supplied without explanation;
• general-ledger extracts, trial balances and account analyses for the correct entity and period;
• payroll registers, employee tax certificates, declarations and payment reconciliations;
• VAT tax invoices, output and input schedules, customs or import records and proof of the underlying supply;
• asset registers, acquisition and disposal agreements, valuations and capital-gain workings;
• loan agreements, interest calculations and related-party records;
• travel logs, allowance schedules or other deduction evidence relevant to the actual claim;
• withholding, residency, cross-border payment and foreign-tax records where those issues are in scope; and
• third-party confirmations or statutory-auditor material where the request specifically reaches them.

These are examples, not a universal SARS list. An invoice may show what was billed but not that it was paid. A bank entry may show payment but not the legal reason or tax treatment. Choose the combination that proves the transaction and its treatment.

Add the bridge from records to the return

Source documents are only one layer. SARS must be able to see how the evidence connects to the amount or position under review. Prepare a reconciliation that starts with the filed figure, identifies the population used, traces it to the relevant ledger or schedule, and links material entries to their source records.

Keep calculations separate from originals. Give every working paper a title, taxpayer, period, preparer, preparation date, source inputs and version. Explain reconciling items instead of editing them away. If the filed return used a different population or assumption from the current schedule, show both and state why the difference exists.

The document-organisation guide provides the request matrix, folder structure and manifest for this selected evidence. This page decides what belongs in the pack; that guide controls how the chosen records are stored and cross-referenced.

Preserve provenance and label later-created material

Keep an unchanged copy of each original record. Record the source system or custodian, received or export date, original filename and any transformation made for presentation. A merged PDF, converted spreadsheet, translation, redacted copy or later reconstruction should never be presented as though it were the original transaction record.

Where a record is missing, prepare a gap schedule containing:

• the exact request affected;
• what is unavailable and why;
• where and when the team searched;
• who normally holds the record;
• alternative evidence that exists;
• the effect of the gap on the reconciliation; and
• the person deciding how the limitation will be explained.

Do not create, backdate or alter a document to close the gap. An honest limitation with traceable alternative evidence is different from an unexplained omission or invented source.

Keep potentially privileged material in a review lane

Ordinary business records do not become legally privileged because they are sent to a lawyer. Accountant and registered-auditor files are also not automatically privileged. If a request may reach legal-advice communications, investigation material or mixed files containing potentially privileged content, segregate the material and obtain advice on the specific documents before disclosure, redaction or withholding.

Section 42A of the Tax Administration Act provides a procedure when legal professional privilege is asserted. The current SARS guide on access to registered-auditor files also distinguishes auditor material from client information that may carry a privilege issue. A folder label or general confidentiality concern is not a substitute for that analysis.

Do not discard records because five years has passed

The Tax Administration Act contains several record-retention triggers. Many return-related records are subject to a five-year period, but section 32 requires records relevant to a notified audit or investigation to be retained until that process is concluded or the otherwise applicable period has ended, whichever is later. Objection or appeal can create a further retention boundary.

Preserve the relevant record set once an audit or investigation is known. Do not apply a simple five-year deletion rule without checking the return, assessment and live-proceeding dates.

Prepare authority and submission evidence

The pack should show who is legally or operationally authorised to respond for the taxpayer, who verified the facts, who reviewed the tax treatment and who will complete the submission. For a company, trust, estate or represented individual, confirm the applicable representative and platform access rather than discovering an authority problem on the due date.

Before release, open every final file, remove unrelated private information only through an approved process, check the live format and size controls, and compare the upload set with the request list. Some SARS work pages separate uploading from the final submit action. Save the receipt, acknowledgement, case reference and exact sent bundle.

Use the questions-before-responding guide if scope, facts, authority or the tax position is still unresolved. Use the audit-stage tax-lawyer guide where the pack reveals a serious legal, privilege, offence, penalty, VDP or compelled-information issue.

A final document-selection check

Before organising the bundle, confirm that:

• each request item has evidence, an approved explanation or a visible escalation decision;
• every record belongs to the correct taxpayer and period;
• every material figure traces from the filed position to a calculation and source;
• originals are preserved and later-created versions are labelled;
• gaps and contradictions are recorded rather than hidden;
• potentially privileged material has not been mixed into a bulk upload;
• the authorised reviewers have signed off; and
• the submission set can be proved after the channel closes.

Completeness does not mean volume. It means the response contains the right evidence for the stated request and exposes any limitation accurately.

Important limitation

This article is general document-preparation guidance. It does not decide whether a SARS request is lawful, prescribe every document for a tax type, calculate a deadline, determine a tax treatment or privilege claim, select a correction or dispute remedy, or guarantee that SARS will accept the response.

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