Life Admin: IDs, Tax, Accounts, Wills and Family Paperwork in South Africa

The one thing

Keep every important document in one place, and know what is there. Most admin problems start with “I can’t find it”. A lost ID, a missing policy number or an expired contract costs time, money and stress, usually at the worst moment. One file, one list and one calendar prevent most of it. §1.2 sets up the home file, and §1.6 builds the calendar.

What Life Admin Is, and What It Costs

Life admin is everything you must do to keep your life running on paper: keeping your identity documents safe, paying and checking accounts, filing your tax, renewing licences and contracts, claiming on policies, and dealing with government offices. Most of it is not difficult. The trouble is that it comes in small pieces, at different times, and it is easy to put off. Leaving it undone costs money and time:

• a late payment brings interest and fees, or a service cut off;
• a contract that renews itself keeps taking money for something you no longer use;
• a lost document means a trip to an office, a queue, a fee and a wait;
• an unfiled tax return can bring penalties;
• a policy with an old beneficiary, or no will, can leave a family with a long and painful process;
• scammers do well when people do not know what is normal: a real SARS refund, a real SASSA message, a real municipal account.

Good life admin is not about being perfectly organised. It is about knowing what you have, where it is, and when the next thing is due.

Worked Example 1.1 — Mokgadi’s drawer

Mokgadi Lekalakala is 28 and works as an administration clerk at a clinic in Polokwane. At work her files are perfect. At home, her papers live in a kitchen drawer, a shoebox and her email. In one month she pays a R250 penalty because she missed a municipal payment while the account was in her old flat’s name, finds that a gym contract she stopped using has been taking R399 a month for eight months, and spends a morning at the police station and Home Affairs after her bag, with her smart ID card in it, is stolen. She could not find a copy of the ID anywhere. “I do this for other people every day,” she says. “I’m going to do it for myself.”

The lesson: small admin gaps add up; the cost is usually money, time and stress together.

Setting Up a Home File

A home file is one place for every important document. It has two parts: The paper file. A ring binder or a box file with dividers, or an accordion file, kept somewhere dry and safe. Use the same sections as this book:

1. Identity: birth certificates, ID documents, passports.
2. Family: marriage certificates, children’s documents, school and clinic cards.
3. Tax: tax number, IRP5s, assessments.
4. Home: lease or title deed, municipal accounts, utility contracts.
5. Contracts and subscriptions: cellphone, internet, gym, store accounts.
6. Grants and government: grant letters, reference numbers.
7. Health and insurance: medical scheme cards, policies, schedules.
8. Will and planning: a note of where your will is, and copies of key nominations.
9. Complaints and records: complaint letters and reference numbers. Put the originals of birth, marriage and death certificates, ID documents and signed contracts in plastic sleeves. Keep them out of direct sun and damp. The digital file. A folder on your phone or computer with the same sections, holding clear photos or scans of each document, named so you can find them: ID_Mokgadi_smart_ID_front_2026.jpg. Back the folder up to a second place, such as a secure cloud account or a memory stick kept apart from the paper file. Protect it with a strong password or screen lock; Staying Safe Online explains how. A scan is not a replacement for an original, but it saves the day when an original is lost: it gives you the numbers and details you need to replace it.

What to Keep, and for How Long

Not everything needs keeping forever. A file stuffed with old till slips is as hard to use as no file at all. A general guide:

• Keep for life: birth, marriage, divorce and death certificates; ID documents and passports (even expired ones, which help prove who you were); qualifications; your will (or a note of where it is); title deeds.
• Keep while it is current, plus some time after: leases, contracts, policies and medical scheme documents, for as long as they run, and then for about three years after they end, in case of a dispute. This is our suggestion, not a legal rule.
• Keep for five years: tax documents. SARS may ask to see the supporting documents for a return for five years after you submit it: IRP5s, medical receipts, retirement annuity certificates.
• Keep until the next one arrives and checks out: monthly statements, municipal accounts and payslips, once you have checked them. Keep the last twelve months, and keep any you are disputing until the dispute is settled.
• Keep until the guarantee runs out: receipts for large purchases.

When you throw a document away, tear or shred anything with your ID number, account numbers or signature on it.