Their automated bot responses can get you into legal trouble

I paid for the Smart Package and submitted all my details well before tax season started. Then, without my consent, my legal and tax status was changed to "Foreign National." I'm a South African citizen and have never lived or worked outside the country.

To edit my return, I needed to pay again to "upgrade" from the "Smart package" to the "Smart package". I have not heard anything from TaxTim on my refund.

To resolve the citizenship issue (which I am unconvinced was not caused by them), TaxTim now wants me to pay an extra R300 just to message them "three more times".

Their follow up support has been virtually non-existent.

In one update, I was advised by TaxTim support to register as a foreign national, despite clearly stating that I am a South African citizen who has never lived or worked abroad. This raised serious concerns for me, as it would have meant submitting false information to SARS. I believe this advice was not only inappropriate, but potentially misleading from a tax compliance standpoint.

After no further helpful responses from them, I accessed the return they filed on my behalf, and it's full of errors and contradictions that do not match the information I submitted.

This is my fifth year using TaxTim, and I've never experienced service this poor before.

They have no phone line or direct e-mail address. I am not able to pay to message them via their Helpdesk, and unable to delete their botched ITR12 from my e-filing profile. I tried reaching out to them via social media and received a bot response to inform me that they do not respond to social media queries. So I am having to resort to this. I am sure that this will fall on deaf ears as well. Hopefully it will help to warn future users.