Please be aware that this site is informational only, and many external factors, unique to your company might apply.
Each company must make their own decisions about how they meet their tax obligations.
In South Africa, accounting documents such as receipts and invoices can be kept digitally, without keeping the original, paper copy. There are however some conditions that need to be taken into account. These conditions are defined in Art. 30 of the Tax Administration Act and Government Notice No 787.
Acceptable electronic form
The documents should be kept in ‘acceptable electronic form’. This includes that the integrity of the electronic form satisfies the standard contained in section 14 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, such as integrity, completeness and availability standards.
Additionally, the documents should be able to be provided to SARS within a reasonable period.
Storage Location
In principle, the documents in electronic form must be kept and maintained at a place physically located in South Africa. However, a senior SARS official may authorise to keep the records outside South Africa.
System documentation
In most cases, the company must keep system documentation that explains the specific method of electronic record keeping.
Retention period
Supporting documents should be kept for five years from the date of submission of the return or the end of the relevant tax period.
Last changed 2026-01-26