SARS took money from my salary, the AA88 explained

If money has disappeared from your salary and the payslip says SARS or AA88, your employer has been appointed as SARS's collecting agent. Under section 179 of the Tax Administration Act, SARS can instruct any third party that holds your money or owes you money, most often your employer or your bank, to pay your outstanding tax debt straight to SARS. The employer has no choice: it must deduct the amount and pay it over. An AA88 is the notice that does this.

The deduction is not a mistake or theft. It means SARS has an assessed debt or an administrative penalty against you that has gone unpaid, and it has stepped past you to collect it from the party that pays you.

What an AA88 actually is

AA88 is the reference on the third party appointment notice SARS issues under section 179(1). It appoints an agent, such as your employer, a bank, a fund, or an attorney holding money for you, to settle your tax debt out of what they hold for you or owe you. For an employee, that means your employer deducts the amount from your salary or wages and pays it to SARS.

The appointment can be made without further notice to you. The debt behind it is usually one of two things: an amount assessed on a return (income tax you were found to owe) or a fixed administrative non-compliance penalty for returns you never submitted. Either way, SARS will normally have sent letters or posted the amount to your eFiling profile before the AA88 reaches your employer.

Your employer cannot simply refuse

Once appointed, the third party is bound. If your employer ignores a valid AA88, it does not shift the problem back to you: the employer itself becomes personally liable for the tax and can be found guilty of an offence, with a fine or imprisonment for up to two years on conviction. That is why payroll departments act on an AA88 quickly and are reluctant to hold it back on your say-so. The way to stop the deduction is to deal with SARS, not with payroll.

How to challenge or ease an AA88

You have real options, but they run through SARS:

• Fix the root cause. If the AA88 collects an administrative penalty for outstanding returns, submit those returns. Then request remission of the penalty on a Request for Remission (RFR1); SARS considers it once the non-compliance is remedied.
• Dispute the underlying debt. If the debt comes from an assessment you believe is wrong, lodge an objection, and ask SARS to suspend payment while you dispute. A granted suspension is what holds the AA88 off; an objection on its own does not.
• Ask for affordability relief. If the debt is genuinely owed but the deduction leaves you unable to live, contact SARS to arrange to pay it in instalments under section 167. SARS can spread the amount over monthly payments rather than taking it in one deduction, but only once your returns are up to date.

Doing nothing is the worst choice: the debt does not go away, interest keeps accruing, and the AA88 keeps deducting until the balance is cleared.

A worked example

Suppose you earn a salary of R300,000 for the 2026 year of assessment and did not declare R50,000 of freelance income. SARS picks it up and assesses the extra tax. Your salary alone sits in the second bracket (R237,101 to R370,500), so the undeclared income is taxed at the 26% marginal rate.

• Tax on R300,000: (R300,000 less R237,100) = R62,900, times 26% = R16,354, plus R42,678 = R59,032.
• Tax on R350,000: (R350,000 less R237,100) = R112,900, times 26% = R29,354, plus R42,678 = R72,032.
• The extra tax on the R50,000 is R72,032 less R59,032, which is R13,000 (the same as R50,000 times 26%).

If you leave that R13,000 unpaid, SARS can issue an AA88 to your employer for it. Your employer must then deduct it, in one amount or in the monthly instalments SARS sets on the notice, and pay it to SARS. The cleaner path is to pay or arrange the R13,000 with SARS first, so the appointment never reaches your payroll.

Where this fits

An AA88 is a collection step, so the fix is upstream. Clear a penalty-driven AA88 by requesting remission of admin penalties once your outstanding returns are in, and if the debt is genuinely owed, a SARS payment arrangement can spread it into instalments. Whether you must file at all is covered in our guide to submitting a tax return, and the tax refund calculator helps you see where an assessment leaves you.

SARS sources:

• https://www.sars.gov.za/types-of-tax/pay-as-you-earn/guidelines-for-third-party-appointments-aa88/
• https://www.sars.gov.za/faq/faq-what-is-an-ita88-third-party-appointment/
• https://www.sars.gov.za/individuals/how-do-i-pay/owing-sars-money/
• https://www.sars.gov.za/individuals/what-if-i-do-not-agree/request-for-remission-of-administrative-non-compliance-penalty/