Yep, log onto govt website, check what they've prefilled (based on reporting requirements by your employer, which covers the vast majority of people), put in any deductions, submit. I was shocked to learn this isn't the norm.
Yeah the real work is trying to make a line ball debt into a either a zero bill or slight positive. The e-tax prefill doesn't do any deductions so if you're lazy it's a great way for the government to scrape a few extra dollars back.
No, in the UK the vast majority of individuals never fill in a tax form in their whole life, not even a pre filled one.
The UK uses the PAYE (Pay as you earn) system whereby the employer withholds tax from your wage on your behalf and pays it to the government automatically. There’s no “pre filled form” to check. It’s just paid already. At the end of each tax year you get a P60 slip telling you how much you earned and paid in total. Sometimes HMRC writes to you tell you oops you paid too much, here’s a refund.
If you have more complex tax affairs you can request to do Self Assessment and fill in a form each year.
Yeah this is one of the things the UK actually gets right. If you end up overpaying for the year it ends up getting sent back to you automatically as a cheque or bank transfer about 6 months after the end of the tax year. Some people aren’t happy that you have to wait that long though e.g a year and a half if you overpay tax in the first month of the tax year.
South Africa also uses PAYE. The South African Revenue Service (SARS) is one of the best run government agencies, so it works pretty well whether it's automatic or if you do self assessment.
