We are aware that some employers have been getting  failed employee taxes validation (ETV) errors for invalid directive dates issued after submitting the EMP501 Reconciliation, even though the directive dates on the tax certificates are correct.

SARS has confirmed to all stakeholders that these employers can ignore the error (if the date is correct).

Please note that the directive date should be the date SARS has issued the directive and not the accrual or application date.

Take note: The PDF tax certificate generated by the IRP5/IT3a report will only reflect the Fixed Rate Directive number ,and not the additional directives (up to 5 per certificate). The details of a tax directive date form part of the IRP5/IT3a import file, and can be viewed on the tax certificate generated by the SARS e@syFile. application.

Should you have any queries or question on the ETV errors, please contact SARS.

Related articles: 

• Tax directive changes on the payroll from Release 5.7a
• Validation error: "Has Directive and lump sum income. Add Directive number(s)"
• Validation error: Lumpsum processed without a valid directive number