autotax
What autotax is
autotax is a web tax service for eligible South African taxpayers. It categorises PDF bank-statement transactions, calculates income tax, and helps prepare returns for submission to SARS. Supported returns include IRP6 provisional, ITR12 individual, and ITR14 one-person Pty Ltd filings. Users upload statements, review categorised transactions, and approve returns; the service says it never submits automatically. Statements can come from FNB, Standard Bank, Nedbank, Absa, Capitec, Investec, TymeBank, and Discovery Bank. Transactions follow a SARS-aligned chart of accounts, with uncertain items flagged for confirmation. The mobile-responsive service has no native mobile app currently shipped. Eligibility covers South African tax residents who are individuals, sole proprietors, or one-person Pty Ltds with annual turnover under R1 million. Pricing includes a free calculator, Personal Income at 99 ZAR a month, and Business Tax at 299 ZAR a month. Security details include AES-256-GCM encryption, passkey authentication, and South African data storage.
Who it suits
It suits eligible South African individuals, sole proprietors, and one-person Pty Ltds under R1 million annual turnover. Accounting firms and enterprises have separate listed plans.
What it does well
- Supports three South African return types
- Handles statements from eight listed banks
- Flags uncertain transactions for confirmation
- Uploaded statements deleted within 24 hours
What to know first
- No native mobile app
- Does not auto-submit returns
- VAT and payroll are roadmap items
Plans
| Plan | Billed and limits | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Personal Income | monthly · ITR12 salary earners · no business income · no provisional submissions | 99 ZAR a month |
| Business Tax | monthly · freelancers · sole proprietors · one-person Pty Ltds | 299 ZAR a month |
| Enterprise | 100+ clients | On request |
| Settled Auto | monthly · automatic email forwarding · year-round capture · three approval notifications yearly | $449 a month |
| Tax calculator | no signup · tax-liability estimate | Free |
| Free tax calculator | Tax liability estimate · no signup required | Free |
| Remove autotax brand | per firm · removes autotax footer and wordmark · no custom logo or colours | 299 ZAR a month |
| Business Tax | annual · IRP6 P1/P2 · ITR12 · ITR14 one-person Pty Ltd · bank-statement parsing · practitioner review | 2,990 ZAR a year |
The first 8 of 13 plans, as autotax.co.za lists them, read 15 Oct 2026. The maker's own page has the final word. Every plan
Verdict
autotax combines statement categorisation with SARS return preparation in a mobile-responsive web service. Its eligibility rules and supported return types make the intended audience specific.
Facts from autotax's own pages
- AI categorisation
- Anthropic Claude categorises transactions against a SARS-aligned chart and sends uncertain items for user confirmation. · autotax.co.za, 15 Oct 2026
- AI data training
- autotax says only transaction descriptions and amounts are sent to Claude, and Anthropic says commercial API data is not used for model training unless customers opt in. · privacy.claude.com, 15 Oct 2026
- AI privacy
- The FAQ says Anthropic Claude is used for transaction categorisation, that Anthropic does not train on data sent through its commercial API, and that autotax sends transaction descriptions and amounts without PII. · autotax.co.za, 7 Oct 2026
- API and SDK
- The public product pages provide no API, SDK or developer documentation. · autotax.co.za, 15 Oct 2026
- Authentication
- Authentication uses WebAuthn passkeys through Better Auth, with MFA required for bank uploads, submissions and payout-detail changes. · autotax.co.za, 15 Oct 2026
- Automation integration
- Settled Auto uses a unique forwarding address with Gmail or Outlook filters to capture monthly bank statements. · autotax.co.za, 15 Oct 2026
- Bank inputs
- Users upload PDF statements from FNB, Standard Bank, Nedbank, Absa, Capitec, Investec, TymeBank or Discovery Bank. · autotax.co.za, 15 Oct 2026
- Bank statement sources
- The site lists PDF statements from FNB, Standard Bank, Nedbank, Absa, Capitec, Investec, TymeBank, and Discovery Bank. · autotax.co.za, 7 Oct 2026
- Company legal status
- The terms say the operating Pty Ltd is still to be incorporated and the founder currently operates autotax as a sole proprietor. · autotax.co.za, 15 Oct 2026
- Company location
- The company describes itself as built in South Africa, but does not publish a city headquarters or founder name. · autotax.co.za, 15 Oct 2026
- Data handling
- The maker says uploaded statements are deleted within 24 hours after processing and that data remains in South Africa. · autotax.co.za, 7 Oct 2026
- Data residency
- The database and object storage are described as Johannesburg-region services, with data kept in South Africa except non-PII queue metadata. · autotax.co.za, 15 Oct 2026
- Eligibility
- The terms describe eligibility as South African tax residents who are individuals, sole proprietors, or one-person Pty Ltds with annual turnover under R1 million. · autotax.co.za, 7 Oct 2026
- Email integrations
- The product documents Gmail and Outlook forwarding rather than bank-login or open-banking connections. · autotax.co.za, 15 Oct 2026
- External filing process
- SARS eFiling pre-populates taxpayer details and validates an IRP6 for errors or omissions before filing confirmation. · sars.gov.za, 15 Oct 2026
- External outage record
- SARS published a maintenance notice for eFiling downtime on 24 May 2026 from 00:00 to 06:00. · sars.gov.za, 15 Oct 2026
- External tax context
- SARS requires provisional taxpayers to submit IRP6 through eFiling, with first and second payments generally due at the end of August and February. · sars.gov.za, 15 Oct 2026
- Free plan
- No · autotax.co.za, 22 Sept 2026
- Human review
- Year-on-year changes above 40 percent, large refunds and first-time provisional filers can be held for practitioner review. · autotax.co.za, 15 Oct 2026
- Integrations
- Settled Auto can forward statement emails using user-configured Gmail or Outlook filters and supports the eight listed South African banks. · autotax.co.za, 7 Oct 2026
- Investment income
- Yes · autotax.co.za, 22 Sept 2026
- Learning rules
- Corrected transaction categories become learned vendor rules, and users can create overriding rules themselves. · autotax.co.za, 15 Oct 2026
- Limit: company size
- Eligibility is limited to South African tax residents, individuals, sole proprietors and one-person Pty Ltds with annual turnover below R1 million. · autotax.co.za, 15 Oct 2026
- Limit: document format
- Scanned PDFs may fail parsing and require the user to provide a digital replacement. · autotax.co.za, 15 Oct 2026
Where autotax stands on Freedom251
- Tax Software#66 of 149
- Personal Tax Software#65 of 123