The South African employer tax filing calendar (2026/27)

If you’re an employer in South Africa, your tax life is a calendar problem.

There are five recurring obligations — the monthly EMP201, the bi-annual EMP501, the IRP5/IT3(a) certificates, the monthly UIF declarations to the Department of Employment and Labour, and the annual COIDA Return of Earnings to the Compensation Fund. Each has its own deadline, its own portal, its own penalty regime, and its own weekend-and-public-holiday rule.

This article is the consolidated calendar for the 2026/27 tax year (1 March 2026 to 28 February 2027) with every deadline, penalty and quirk in one place.

Why this matters more than people think

Late EMP201 payment carries a one-off 10% penalty under section 213 of the Tax Administration Act, plus interest currently running at 10.25% per annum (the rate moves with the repo rate).

Late EMP501 reconciliation carries 1% of your annual PAYE liability per month outstanding, capped at 10%. On a R 10-million annual PAYE bill that’s up to R 1 million in penalties for being five months late.

Late COIDA Return of Earnings blocks the issue of your Letter of Good Standing, which means you can’t bid on tenders or contracts that require one (most government and large corporate contracts do).

Late UIF declarations carry 10% interest per annum plus an administrative penalty under section 14 of the UI Contributions Act.

None of this is ruinous on its own. All of it is avoidable.

EMP201 — the monthly heartbeat

The EMP201 is the monthly employer declaration. It tells SARS how much PAYE, UIF and SDL you owe for the prior payroll month, and it’s also where you claim Employment Tax Incentive (ETI) credits for qualifying young workers.

EMP201 is filed and paid via SARS eFiling. It’s due by the 7th of the month after the payroll month. If the 7th falls on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday, both submission and payment must clear on the last business day before the 7th.

The trigger is "funds in the SARS bank account", not "EFT initiated" — so paying at 16:00 on the deadline day is risky if your bank batches overnight.

The full 2026/27 EMP201 calendar

Election-day caveat. Government has signalled an intention to declare Wed 4 Nov 2026 a public holiday for local government elections, but it hasn’t been formally proclaimed in the Government Gazette at the time of writing. If it is gazetted, the Oct 2026 payroll EMP201 deadline shifts from Fri 6 Nov to Tue 3 Nov. Check the SARS calendar closer to November.

The weekend rule, properly

SARS’s weekend rule is roll back to the last business day, not roll forward. So:

• 7 Jun 2026 = Sunday → deadline is Friday 5 Jun, not Monday 8 Jun.
• 6 Nov 2026 (which is when the rule pushes Oct’s deadline) is a Friday, so no further rollback needed.
• 7 Feb 2027 = Sunday → deadline is Friday 5 Feb.
• 7 Mar 2027 = Sunday → deadline is Friday 5 Mar.

The Public Holidays Act 36 of 1994 also says that any public holiday falling on a Sunday is observed on the following Monday. So Women’s Day 2026 (Sun 9 Aug) is observed on Mon 10 Aug. That doesn’t affect any 7th-of-the-month deadlines but it does affect SARS’ own bank cut-off times that week — pay early.

EMP501 — the bi-annual reconciliation

The EMP501 is the reconciliation between three numbers:

1. What you declared on your EMP201s.
2. What you actually paid SARS.
3. The totals on the IRP5/IT3(a) certificates you generated for your employees.

It’s submitted twice a year:

Interim EMP501 (covers Mar – Aug 2026)

• Filing window: approximately 21 Sep – 31 Oct 2026.
• Practical close date: Fri 30 Oct 2026 (31st is a Saturday).
• Penalty for late filing: 1% of your annual PAYE × number of months late, capped at 10%.

The interim reconciliation does not produce IRP5 certificates that get distributed to employees — only the annual one does. But the data you submit at interim must reconcile to the cent.

Annual EMP501 (covers full 2026/27 year)

• Filing window: Wed 1 Apr – Mon 31 May 2027.
• Practical advice: open early, file by mid-May. The window always extends; don’t bet on it.

The annual EMP501 does produce IRP5/IT3(a) certificates — issued automatically the moment SARS accepts the submission. Employees need their IRP5 to file their personal ITR12 in tax season (typically opens early July).

The 2026 rule change still bites

From 2026 onwards, SARS rejects EMP501 submissions that include any employee without a valid Income Tax Reference Number (or without a documented exemption reason). If you have employees who haven’t been registered, your March payroll is the time to fix it — not the night before the October interim deadline.

IRP5 / IT3(a) certificates

The IRP5 is issued when PAYE was deducted from an employee. The IT3(a) is issued when an employee was paid but no PAYE was deducted (e.g. their pay fell below the threshold).

Employers don’t generate these manually — they’re produced by your payroll software and submitted as part of the EMP501.

The practical timeline:

• End of February 2027: payroll year ends.
• March 2027: finalise any outstanding payments.
• 1 Apr – 31 May 2027: annual EMP501 window.
• Early June 2027: issue IRP5s to employees (best practice: by mid-May so they have them ready when tax season opens).

If an employee leaves mid-year, you must issue them an IRP5 within 14 days of their last day — not wait for the annual reconciliation.

UIF declarations (UI-19 and UI-7)

UIF reporting is the bit most employers forget exists separately from SARS. The PAYE/UIF/SDL totals you submit to SARS via EMP201 satisfy SARS’s reporting needs. The Department of Employment and Labour, which administers the actual fund, wants its own monthly declarations:

• UI-19 — employee details and any changes (new hires, terminations, salary changes).
• UI-7 — return of contributions for the month.

Both are filed via uFiling. The deadline is by the 7th of each month for the prior month, with the same weekend-rollback rule as EMP201.

Why two systems? SARS collects the money on behalf of the UIF Commissioner. The UIF Commissioner needs the employee-level information separately so they can pay benefits to those employees if they later claim. The two are reconciled annually.

You can submit UI-19s in bulk via a CSV upload to uFiling, or individually through the web portal. Most payroll systems auto-generate the file.

COIDA Return of Earnings (W.As.8)

COIDA — the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act — requires every employer with one or more employees to register with the Compensation Fund and submit an annual Return of Earnings.

The return tells the Fund what you paid your employees, the Fund assesses what you owe in compensation premiums, and (once paid) the Fund issues a Letter of Good Standing.

Deadline and the inevitable extension

The statutory deadline is 31 March for the previous assessment year. In practice it’s been extended every year since 2018. For the 2025/26 assessment year, the official extension landed the deadline at 30 Jun 2026.

For the 2026/27 year, expect the window to follow the same pattern: 1 Apr – 30 Jun 2027. Confirm via the Compensation Fund portal closer to the time.

Why this matters operationally

If you bid on tenders — especially government tenders or contracts with large corporates — you’ll be asked for a Letter of Good Standing. The Letter is only issued once your ROE is submitted and your assessment is paid. Both have to happen before you can win the work.

If you miss the ROE deadline:

• 10% penalty of the assessment, automatically applied.
• Interest at the prescribed rate on the unpaid assessment after 30 days.
• Letter of Good Standing not issued until everything is resolved.

Who’s covered

Every employer, including:

• Working directors drawing a salary.
• Domestic employers (yes, your nanny’s wages count).
• Anyone employing one person for more than 24 hours a month.

The exceptions are very narrow — military personnel, foreign diplomats, contracted-out workers covered by other schemes. Assume you’re in scope unless your accountant has confirmed otherwise.

Penalties — the consolidated view

Penalties accrue independently. A genuinely terrible January would see you hit by all five at once.

Five pro tips for staying ahead of the calendar

1. Pay the EMP201 on day 1, not day 7

The deadline is the 7th. The work of preparing the EMP201 is done as soon as you close the run. Submitting and paying immediately is zero risk and zero cost; waiting until the 7th leaves you exposed to weekend rules, bank cut-offs, eFiling outages and unexpected public holidays. Pay the day after you close payroll.

2. Don’t treat the interim EMP501 as optional

Lots of small employers skip the October interim and "catch it all" in the May annual. SARS notices. The 1% per month penalty is calculated from the interim deadline, not the annual. By May 2027, an unpaid October 2026 reconciliation is already at 7%.

3. Check IT numbers in March, not October

The 2026 rule that rejects EMP501s with missing IT numbers means a March audit of your employee roster is much cheaper than a last-week-of-October scramble.

4. File UI-19 even when nothing changes

The UI-19 is a full declaration of your employees each month, not just changes. Skipping a month because "no one was hired or fired" breaks your continuity record and creates problems if an employee later claims benefits.

5. Put COIDA in your June diary

Even though the deadline always extends, treat 30 June as the real date and you’ll never miss it. Letters of Good Standing take days to issue; don’t cut it close.

What payloop does for you

payloop tracks every one of these deadlines for you and reminds you seven days in advance. The EMP201 is staged for SARS the moment you close a run. The interim and annual EMP501 are pre-populated with your year-to-date totals. The UI-19 file is generated in uFiling format. The COIDA ROE workbook is built from your monthly payroll data so you don’t have to re-derive it.

If you want to see what your tax calendar looks like with payloop sitting underneath it, book a 30-minute working session — we’ll set it up against your real employees and walk you through the next twelve months.

Frequently asked questions

What if I have no employees in a given month?

You still file a "nil" EMP201 by the 7th. Failing to file (even with zero) triggers an admin non-compliance penalty under the TAA. You can file a nil EMP201 in about 30 seconds via eFiling.

Do I file EMP201 monthly even if employees are paid weekly?

Yes. EMP201 is monthly regardless of your payroll frequency. You total all wages paid in the calendar month and declare them by the 7th of the next month.

How does ETI (Employment Tax Incentive) work on EMP201?

ETI is claimed on the EMP201 as a reduction of your PAYE liability, not paid out separately. For qualifying 18–29-year-olds earning under R 6 500 / month, you reduce the PAYE you owe by the ETI amount. Excess ETI rolls over to the next month and is paid out at the bi-annual reconciliation if it exceeds your PAYE.

What if SARS eFiling is down on the deadline day?

SARS publishes outage notices on their status page and on Twitter. If the outage spans the deadline, they typically extend it; submit a remission request via the Request for Remission of Administrative Non-compliance Penalty process and reference the outage.

Can I pay EMP201 by EFT instead of debit order?

Yes. Use SARS’s public beneficiary details, your 10-digit PAYE reference number as the payment reference, and pay from a verified business account. The payment must reflect in SARS’s account by the deadline — not just be initiated.

Where do I find the official 2026/27 SARS calendar?

The maintained version is at sars.gov.za/individuals/i-need-help-with-my-tax/calendar. The Monthly Tax Digest at sars.gov.za/monthly-digest is also worth subscribing to.