I left the country in Jan 2004 and went off to Egypt for 5 years. On my return in November 2009 I reactivated my Tax Number with SARS and returned to the workforce in South Africa. In 2010 when I went to do my tax I was informed that I owed them +- 50K. After several long hours in line and some years later we are at the point now where we know what the problem is. Tax year 2004 IRP 5 was never filed and SARS did estimation on my income for the year. The lady that did my tax for me those years is regrettably no longer with us and her office is also gone. Go get one from your employer at the time they tell me, however I am told categorically that the company does not keep anything older than 5 years although in their defense they did try valiantly to dig something up for me. The company referred me back to SARS stating that SARS would have received a soft copy of this in 2004. According to SARS they did not receive anything from my employer however they did get an IRP 5 from my Provident Fund for the same tax year. My question is this. Am I legally expected to produce paperwork for 2003 / 2004, now seven years later, based on an assessment that happened more than 5 years after the tax year in question bearing in mind that I stopped working in mid 2003? I have looked on the web and opinions on how long one is legally required to keep documentation for Personal Tax vary from 3 years to 30 years depending on who you read. Can somebody please help.