During testing of the mid-year submission files, Sage identified that the South African Revenue Services (SARS) have updated the validation rules concerning income tax reference numbers.
Effective from the Interim Employer Reconciliation for March to August 2025 (Period 202508), income tax reference numbers will be mandatory in specific scenarios as part of the SARS submission requirements.
The SARS Business Requirement Specification for 2025/2026 includes the following validation for tax numbers (code 3100):
The following validation rules apply for your mid-year submissions:
- If Type of certificate (code 3015) is IRP5 and PAYE (code 4102) is greater than zero, the Income tax reference number is mandatory
- If Type of certificate (code 3015) is IT3(a) and Reason code for IT3(a) is not 02 (Earnings Less than the Tax Threshold) and not 04 (Non Taxable Earnings (including nil directive)), then Income tax reference number is mandatory
Although the SARS BRS previously specified this value as mandatory, submissions without it were still accepted, allowing some flexibility in practice. However, going forward, submissions missing employee income tax numbers will no longer be accepted.
To ensure compliance, confirm all your employees have a tax number before exporting the Interim Employer Reconciliation file.
How can I review outstanding income tax numbers?
- You current software will indicate missing tax numbers as warnings on the IRP5/IT3a Report (Validation only), aligned with the above rules.
- Click here for steps to run the validation report
How can I register my employees for tax numbers?
The following guides are available to help with the registration process for tax numbers:
I am unable to register my employee for an income tax reference number, is there any other way to get the number?
The following page has all the methods how an employee can obtain or register for their own tax number, or obtain if if already registered.
- How do I register for tax (As individual)