Your IRP5, decoded — every source code on the certificate (2026/27)

Once a year your employer hands you a single page that decides how much tax you owe — and most of it is a wall of four-digit numbers. 3601, 3701, 4102, 4116. No labels you’d recognise, no explanation, just codes and Rand amounts in a grid.

This is the decoder. Every source code that can appear on a South African IRP5 or IT3(a) for the 2026/27 tax year (1 March 2026 to 28 February 2027), what each one means, where it comes from on your payslip, and whether it’s taxable. Then the three questions everyone actually has: why your IRP5 doesn’t match your payslips, how it gets onto eFiling, and what to do when it never arrives.

Everything here is checked against the current SARS PAYE BRS — PAYE Employer Reconciliation (version 25.2.0, April 2026), the document that defines every code, and the SARS Find a Source Code tool.

IRP5 or IT3(a) — which one did you get?

They’re the same certificate with one difference: whether tax was withheld.

• An IRP5 is issued when your employer deducted employees’ tax (PAYE) from you during the year.
• An IT3(a) is issued when remuneration was paid but no tax was deducted — for example, you earned below the tax threshold, or you’re an independent contractor. On an IT3(a) a reason code (4150) is mandatory, explaining why nothing was withheld.

The certificate carries its own type field (code 3015), and SARS validates it strictly: an IRP5 must show a value under 4101, 4102 or 4115 and must not carry a 4150 reason; an IT3(a) is the mirror image. You can’t have both.

You don’t file your IRP5 — your employer does. This is the single biggest misconception. There is no facility anywhere for you to “submit your IRP5.” Your employer generates it and files it with SARS as part of the twice-yearly EMP501 reconciliation (the deadlines are in the employer tax filing calendar). SARS then uses that data to pre-populate your income tax return, the ITR12. Your job is to check it and file the return — more on that below.

The shape of the certificate

Before the codes, the scaffolding. A certificate has four blocks.

The employer block. Trading name and three reference numbers you can sanity-check at a glance: the PAYE reference (code 2020) starts with a 7, the SDL reference (2022) starts with an L, and the UIF reference (2024) starts with a U. The last nine digits of all three match.

The employee block. Your name, ID or passport number, your income tax reference number, and a “nature of person” code (3020) — A for an ordinary individual, N for someone drawing a retirement-fund or two-pot benefit, and so on.

The certificate number (code 3010) is a fixed 30-character string, not a random reference. The first ten digits are the employer’s PAYE number, the next four are the tax year, the next two are the reconciliation month (08 for the interim August cycle, 02 for the final February one), and the rest is a unique tail. It can never be reused.

The period and the directive block. Your start and end dates, the number of pay periods in the year (code 3200) and how many you actually worked (3210), and — if you received a lump sum, severance, or share gains — a tax directive block (codes 3230 to 3234) carrying the SARS directive number that fixed the tax on it.

One myth worth killing: the codes 7002, 7003, 7004 and 7005 are not the directive block. They’re the Employment Tax Incentive (ETI) fields, used only on the employer’s side. The directive number lives in code 3230.

How to read any code

The codes cluster into ranges, and once you know the ranges you can place a code you’ve never seen:

Three reading rules:

1. A code suffixed “(Excl)” is non-taxable; one suffixed “(PAYE)” is taxed. SARS spells this out in the long name of every code.
2. Add roughly 50 for the foreign-service version. Income earned working abroad mirrors the local code: 3601 becomes 3651, 3701 becomes 3751. Same meaning, foreign source.
3. The old retirement-funding split is dead. Codes 3697 and 3698 (gross retirement-funding vs non-retirement-funding income) were retired in 2017. If they appear on a 2026/27 certificate, it’s defective — everything taxable now rolls into a single total, 3699.

The tables below cover every code in active use, plus the important historical ones you might still see on an older certificate.

Income codes (3601–3699)

The bread-and-butter earnings codes. 3601 is the one on almost every certificate; the rest handle specific kinds of pay.

A few things this table hides:

• 3615 (director’s remuneration) is gone — from 2019, a private-company director’s salary is reported under 3601 like anyone else’s.
• Codes 3604, 3609 and 3612 (non-taxable pension, non-taxable award, non-taxable annuity) were folded into 3602 back in 2010.
• ✱ 3622, the long-service cash award, is all-or-nothing. The full award is reported here, then treated as wholly tax-free if the combined long-service amount is within the annual exemption — raised in Budget 2026 from R 5 000 to R 16 000 — or wholly taxable if it exceeds it. It isn’t split.
• 3696 and 3699 are totals, not payments. 3699 is the sum of every taxable income code; 3696 the sum of every non-taxable one. Together they account for all income on the certificate. Hold onto 3699 — it’s the number that confuses everyone, and we come back to it.

Allowance codes (3701–3722)

Allowances are where certificates go wrong most often, because the taxable treatment is rarely “all or nothing.”

The travel codes deserve a paragraph, because they trip up almost everyone:

• ✱ 3701 shows 100% of the allowance, but only 80% is fed into the PAYE calculation (or just 20%, if your employer is satisfied that at least 80% of your driving will be for business). The other 20–80% is settled when you assess, against a logbook. The prescribed rate for 2026/27 is R 4.95 per kilometre from 1 March 2026.
• 3703 is the clean one — reimbursed at or below the SARS rate with no other travel pay, fully non-taxable. The moment any other travel allowance is also paid, the reimbursement has to split into 3702 (up to the rate) and 3722 (the taxable excess) instead. 3703 and 3701 must never appear together.
• “On assessment” means the amount isn’t taxed by your employer each month, but it’s declared and settled when SARS assesses your return — you may owe, or you may claim a deduction against it.

The mechanics of the 80/20 rule and the per-kilometre maths sit in how to calculate PAYE, UIF and SDL. Codes 3705, 3706 and 3709 to 3712 (subsistence, entertainment, uniform, tool, computer and phone allowances) were retired between 2002 and 2010; they now roll up into 3713 or 3714.

Fringe-benefit codes (3801–3825)

These are the benefits you receive in kind — no cash reaches your bank account, but they’re taxed as if it did. This is the range that makes your IRP5 look bigger than what you were paid.

The two that surprise people are 3817 and 3825. Since 2016, your employer’s contribution to your pension or provident fund is treated as a taxable fringe benefit — it’s added to your income and then deducted again (under 4001/4003), so it nets to zero but inflates both halves of the certificate. Codes 3803, 3804 and 3807 (use of an asset, meals, low-interest loans) were absorbed into the catch-all 3801 in 2010.

Lump-sum codes (3901–3926)

Lump sums are taxed on their own special tables, not the normal PAYE rates, and almost all of them require a SARS tax directive before your employer or fund can pay them. You’ll usually see these on a fund-issued certificate, not your normal payslip.

Two notes that matter for 2026/27:

• ✱ “Partly” means the lump sum is taxed on the retirement or withdrawal tax tables: a tax-free slice first, then rising rates. The directive number on the certificate is what fixed the tax.
• 3926 is the two-pot code, not 3924. When you withdrew from the savings “pot” of your retirement fund under the two-pot system that started on 1 September 2024, it lands here — and unlike most lump sums, it’s added to your income and taxed at your normal marginal rate, not the favourable lump-sum table. 3924, despite the lower number, is a different thing entirely (a tax-neutral transfer at retirement age). Codes 3902 to 3905 and 3909 are legacy codes for pre-2009 accruals, now rolled into 3915 or 3920; code 3923 (transfer of unclaimed benefits) applied only for 2018–2024 and was discontinued from 2025.

Compensation for death during employment also changed for 2026/27

A quieter Budget 2026 change worth flagging if you’re dealing with an estate: the tax-free threshold on code 3922 (compensation paid when an employee dies in service) rose from R 300 000 to R 800 000 for years of assessment from 2027 onward. Amounts above that attract PAYE.

Deduction codes (4001–4055)

These come off your income before tax, or feed a tax credit. The “effect” column matters more than “taxable” here — none of these are income.

4001, 4003 and 4006 are the retirement codes — your contributions to a pension, provident or retirement-annuity fund, plus the value of any employer contribution that showed up as a fringe benefit (3817/3825). They reduce your taxable income, subject to the combined annual retirement-contribution cap.

4005 is subtler. Your medical-scheme contributions don’t reduce your taxable income directly — instead they drive the medical scheme fees tax credit (4116), which knocks money straight off your tax. So the figure matters even though it isn’t a deduction in the usual sense. Code 4042 is brand new for 2026: it handles pay you refunded to your employer (an overpayment or clawed-back commission). The arrear codes (4002, 4004, 4007) were merged into the main contribution codes years ago; 4018 (income-protection premiums) stopped being deductible in 2015; and 4055 was the once-off COVID Solidarity Fund code.

Employees’ tax, credits and the totals

The bottom of the certificate. This is the tax that was actually withheld, the credits applied, and the reconciling totals.

The traps in this block:

• 4102 is your PAYE; 4115 is separate tax on lump sums. They don’t mix.
• 4116 and 4120 are credits, not deductions — they reduce your tax directly. Critically, they are excluded from the 4149 total. 4149 is only PAYE + lump-sum tax + UIF + SDL.
• 4141 bundles both UIF contributions — the 1% taken off you and the matching 1% your employer pays. (If you’re ever claiming, the UIF claim walkthrough covers what happens next.) 4142 (SDL) is purely an employer cost — it never comes off your pay.
• 4150 only appears on an IT3(a), where it says why no tax was withheld. The codes you’ll see: 02 earns below the threshold, 03 independent contractor or resident NED, 04 non-taxable earnings, 05 exempt foreign income, 06 director’s remuneration quantified in a following year, 07 labour broker with an IRP30, 08 fully covered by medical credits, 09 no withholding was possible, 10 (new in 2026) a clawback from a former employee.

Code 4103 (the old combined tax total) was replaced by 4149 in 2010.

A year of payslips, decoded into one IRP5

Codes in the abstract don’t stick. Here’s a real employee, twelve payslips reconciled into one certificate.

Meet the employee. Base salary R 30 000 / month. A 7.5% pension contribution (R 2 250 / month). Medical aid for themselves plus one dependant (R 1 500 / month). A R 6 000 / month travel allowance. And a once-off R 30 000 bonus in December. They earn above every threshold, so PAYE is withheld normally.

A normal month’s payslip carries these codes:

3601  Income            R 30 000
3701  Travel allowance  R  6 000
4001  Pension          −R  2 250
4005  Medical aid      −R  1 500
4116  Medical credit    R    752   (R 376 × 2 beneficiaries)
4141  UIF (you)        −R 177.12   (capped — salary is over the ceiling)
4102  PAYE             −R  ~4 623

In December the bonus is added under 3605, and that month’s PAYE jumps to absorb the tax on it. At year-end, those twelve payslips collapse into one IRP5:

The employer also reports SDL (4142) and the grand total (4149), and the PAYE the system withheld across all twelve months reconciles to exactly R 64 779 — that tie-out is the EMP501.

Where the R 64 779 comes from, if you want to follow it:

PAYE base   = 3601 (360 000) + 3605 (30 000) + 80% of travel (57 600)
            = R 447 600
Less pension  − R 27 000                 → taxable income R 420 600
Tax (2026/27) = 79 998 + 31% × (420 600 − 383 100)  = R 91 623
Less primary rebate  − R 17 820          → R 73 803
Less medical credit  − R 9 024 (4116)    → PAYE = R 64 779

Note three things the certificate quietly did: it showed the full R 72 000 travel allowance under 3701 but only put 80% into the tax base; it used 3605 to keep the bonus out of the monthly 3601 figure; and it produced a 3699 of R 462 000 that matches neither your salary, nor your taxable income, nor your take-home. Which is the whole problem with reading an IRP5.

Why your IRP5 doesn’t match your payslips

This is the most common “something is wrong” email payroll teams get. Usually nothing is wrong — an IRP5 reports taxable income built from source codes, which is a different animal from the cash that hit your account. The usual suspects:

1. 3699 is not your salary. It’s the sum of taxable income codes. In the example above it’s R 462 000 — salary plus bonus plus the full travel allowance — not your R 360 000 base.
2. Pre-tax deductions pull it down. Your pension and RA contributions (4001/4006) reduce taxable income below what you actually earned. Add them back when you reconcile.
3. Fringe benefits push it up. A company car (3802), employer medical (3810) or employer pension (3817) inflate your taxable income above your cash, because they’re benefits in kind. If your IRP5 looks bigger than your bank statements, this is almost always why.
4. The bonus is in 3605, not 3601. A 13th cheque or leave pay-out sits in its own code, so twelve monthly salary lines will never sum to 3601 if you got one.
5. You changed jobs, or it’s an interim certificate. A mid-year move means two IRP5s; an August interim certificate covers only half the year. Sum every certificate for the year before comparing.
6. You spot 3697 or 3698. Those codes died in 2017. On a current certificate they signal a defect — ask your employer to reissue.

If a code still looks wrong after all that, look it up on the SARS Find a Source Code tool and raise it with your employer — because, as below, only they can change it.

“Submitting” your IRP5

The most-searched IRP5 question is “how do I submit my IRP5 on eFiling.” The answer: you don’t, and you can’t. Your employer already filed it. What you file is your ITR12 income tax return, into which SARS has pre-loaded the IRP5 data your employer submitted. Here’s the real flow on eFiling:

1. Log in at sars.gov.za with your username and password, then clear the OTP / biometric prompt.
2. Open the ITR12 for the tax year from your dashboard (Returns → Returns Issued → Personal Income Tax), and open the Income Tax Work Page.
3. Click “Refresh Data.” This is the step that matters if your IRP5 looks missing — it forces eFiling to pull the latest data your employer filed.
4. Open the return and run the wizard so the Employees’ Tax Certificate Information section is included.
5. Check the pre-populated IRP5 against the paper copy your employer gave you — every income code, every deduction, the PAYE, the certificate number. These fields are locked: SARS won’t let you edit third-party data.
6. If it’s missing: refresh again; if still absent, your employer hasn’t filed — chase them. If it’s wrong: you can’t fix it yourself. Your employer must correct and resubmit the EMP501; then you refresh and re-check. Do not overtype the figures to make them look right — it stalls your assessment.
7. File — or, if SARS auto-assessed you off the same IRP5 data and you agree, do nothing; the assessment stands.

On the SARS MobiApp

The phone flow is the same logic, touch-driven:

1. Install the SARS MobiApp (App Store, Play Store or Huawei App Gallery) and open it.
2. Log in with your eFiling username and password, or Face ID / fingerprint if you’ve enabled it, and approve the two-factor prompt.
3. If you were auto-assessed, tap My Auto Assessment — agree and you’re done; disagree and tap Request Return.
4. Otherwise tap Tax Returns, pick the year, and open the ITR12.
5. Review the pre-populated IRP5 income, complete any red mandatory fields, then tap Submit and Confirm. The status moves to Filed.

Filing season usually opens in early July (in 2025 auto-assessments ran 7–20 July and ordinary filing from 21 July). SARS confirms the exact 2026 dates by notice — watch the SARS filing-season page.

If you never got an IRP5

Issuing your certificate is a legal obligation, not a courtesy. It sits in paragraph 13 of the Fourth Schedule to the Income Tax Act — your employer must deliver your IRP5/IT3(a) within 60 days of the tax year ending if you’re still employed, or within 14 days of you leaving. (It is not, as is sometimes claimed, section 4A of the Tax Administration Act.)

If it doesn’t arrive:

1. Ask your employer (or ex-employer) in writing. Most of the time it’s an admin lapse, and a written request fixes it.
2. If they won’t, contact SARS — the Contact Centre on 0800 00 7277 or a branch. SARS will only let you rebuild your return from payslips and bank statements in narrow cases: the employer is insolvent, untraceable, deceased, or was never registered for PAYE. Bring every payslip for the year and bank statements showing your salary deposits.

What payloop does with all of this

Every code in this article is one our engine has to produce correctly, in the right place, for every employee, twice a year. payloop maps each payslip line to its SARS source code as the run is built — the bonus to 3605, the travel allowance to 3701 at full value with 80% into the tax base, the employer pension to 3817 and back out at 4001, the medical credit to 4116 and out of the 4149 total. When the EMP501 season comes, the IRP5/IT3(a) certificates and the reconciliation generate from data that already ties out, against the current SARS BRS — not a spreadsheet someone re-keys in May.

If you’re staring at a stack of certificates that don’t reconcile, book a 30-minute working session and we’ll run your numbers against the 2026/27 codes side by side with whatever you’re on now.

Frequently asked questions

What does IRP5 mean?

It’s the name of the employee tax certificate your employer issues each year, summarising what you earned and what tax was withheld, coded against the SARS source-code system. There’s no expansion of the letters — “IRP5” is just the form number. Its twin, the IT3(a), is the same certificate issued when no tax was deducted.

What is source code 3601 on my IRP5?

3601 is your normal income — salary and wages for services rendered. On most payslips it’s the single largest figure. It excludes bonuses (3605), travel allowances (3701) and overtime (3607), which have their own codes.

Why is the income on my IRP5 higher than what I was paid?

Almost always fringe benefits. A company car (3802), employer medical aid (3810) or employer retirement contributions (3817/3825) are added to your taxable income even though no cash reached you. Your IRP5 reports taxable income, not take-home pay.

How do I submit my IRP5 to SARS?

You don’t — your employer submits it as part of their EMP501 reconciliation. What you submit is your ITR12 return, which SARS pre-fills from that IRP5 data. You log into eFiling or the MobiApp, check the pre-populated figures against your certificate, and file the return.

My employer hasn’t given me my IRP5. What can I do?

Request it in writing first — they’re legally required to issue it under paragraph 13 of the Fourth Schedule (within 60 days of year-end, or 14 days of you leaving). If they don’t, contact SARS on 0800 00 7277 with your payslips and bank statements.

What’s the difference between code 4102 and 4116?

4102 is PAYE — tax that was withheld from you and paid to SARS. 4116 is the medical scheme fees tax credit — a rebate that reduced your tax. One is money taken; the other is money saved. And 4116 is deliberately left out of the 4149 total.

Where can I look up a source code I don’t recognise?

Use the SARS Find a Source Code tool, or the full definitions in the SARS PAYE BRS (version 25.2.0 for 2026/27). If a code looks wrong, the fix is with your employer — SARS can’t edit third-party certificate data.