COVID-19 led to numerous business liquidations and employment losses. Governments worldwide had to intervene to support their citizens and keep businesses afloat. It fell to tax administrators to ease the tax burden on taxpayers, all the while facing hardships in respect of tax collection. National Treasury and the South African Revenue Service (SARS) implemented tax relief measures because of COVID-19. Despite this, taxpayers are still experiencing the detrimental effects of COVID-19. It is the government’s aim to offer additional help to businesses and individuals who are still facing these hardships and assist in rebuilding businesses. This paper considers the tax measures that were taken by South Africa in comparison to those that were taken by Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) countries to determine the usefulness of these measures in dealing with the effects of COVID-19 on taxes. It is critical to understand these tax relief measures to be ready if a pandemic were to recur in the future. A comparative analysis method is applied using BRICS countries. This is appropriate, as the BRICS group consists of developing countries with mutual economic ties. The findings of this analysis indicate which measures were used, when they were implemented, and how tax policies in the BRICS countries changed while adjusting to COVID-19. It was found that tax policies put in place in South Africa decreased tax collection without any measures in place to boost it. Examining the tax policy amendments made by BRICS nations during COVID-19 assists in identifying areas for improvement.