Medical aid

How to get your Bestmed tax certificate for SARS

Bestmed made 2026 tax certificates available on 10 June 2026, by email and on its self-service platforms. If the email did not arrive, download the certificate from the member portal or the Bestmed app.

Prepare medical certificates for eFiling. TaxScanZA scans and exports SARS-ready PDFs under the upload limit.
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Updated 6 October 2026. General information, not tax advice. TaxScanZA is independent of Bestmed and SARS.

Where to find the certificate

Bestmed says certificates were "delivered to you via email" and made available on its self-service platforms on Wednesday, 10 June 2026.

  • Email: Bestmed emails tax certificates to all members. Search your inbox for "tax certificate" from 10 June 2026.
  • Member portal: log in to the portal on the Bestmed website and download your tax certificate.
  • Bestmed app: available on Google Play, Huawei AppGallery and the Apple App Store. Once you have registered and logged in, you can download your tax certificate.
  • Queries: Bestmed lists service@bestmed.co.za and 086 000 2378 for tax certificate queries.

Bestmed also asks members to keep their contact details up to date so the certificate reaches them.

What the certificate is for

SARS's ITR12 guide lists "the tax certificate received from your medical scheme for the period 1 March 2025 and ending 28 February 2026" among the supporting documents for the 2026 return. SARS calculates the medical scheme fees tax credit for each month of contributions, for you and your dependants, so check the monthly contributions and the people covered against your own records.

SARS receives this data from your scheme, which is why it usually appears on your return already. You need the certificate itself if a figure is wrong, if you claim additional medical expenses, or if SARS selects your return for verification.

Make it SARS-ready before you upload

When you do upload the certificate, for a correction or a verification, the file has to pass eFiling's upload checks:

  • Under 5MB per file. A multi-page phone photo or a high-resolution scan can go over the limit.
  • Not password-protected. SARS lists password-protected and encrypted documents from banks and funds as a cause of failed uploads. The file opens for you but eFiling rejects it.
  • Readable. Your name, the membership number, the scheme name, the monthly contributions and the dependant details must be legible after any compression.
  • A plain filename. Use letters, numbers and hyphens only, for example bestmed-tax-certificate-2026.pdf.
The fix for a protected or oversized PDF: Open the certificate, print it or display it clearly on screen, and scan it as a new PDF. A fresh scan carries no encryption, and TaxScanZA exports it under 5MB with a clean filename.

If the figure on your return is wrong

SARS's ITR12 guide says auto-assessments use data received from "employers, financial institutions, medical schemes, retirement annuity fund administrators and other third-party data providers". If the medical scheme figure on your return does not match your certificate, SARS's auto-assessment guidance is to ask the institution that provided the data to correct it and send the updated data to SARS. Then open your return again, check that the figure has updated, and file. Keep the certificate: it is your proof if SARS asks.

Check the file before you upload

Run the certificate through the SARS Document Compliance Checker. It flags encrypted PDFs, oversized files and filenames eFiling may refuse, in your browser, without uploading anything. Then follow the medical aid certificate upload guide for the eFiling submission itself.

See also encrypted PDF upload error, SARS verification and the supporting documents checklist. Member of another scheme? See the guides for Discovery Health, Bonitas, Momentum Medical Scheme, GEMS, Medshield, Fedhealth and POLMED.

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