South Africa | Income Tax Reference Numbers Now Compulsory

South Africa | Income Tax Reference Numbers Now Compulsory

What’s changing?

When testing the 2025/2026 Interim EMP501 Reconciliation submissions through SARS’s e@syFile BETA system, it was confirmed that SARS has tightened the validation checks around employees’ Income Tax Reference Numbers (TRNs).

From the 2025/2026 interim filing season onwards, certain submissions will not be accepted unless a valid tax reference number is supplied.

This requirement forms part of SARS’s official submission rules.

The SARS validation rules

According to the 2025/2026 PAYE Business Requirement Specification (BRS), the following conditions apply (Income tax reference number: code 3100):

  • IRP5 certificates
    • If PAYE (code 4102) > 0, an income tax reference number must be provided.
    • If PAYE (code 4102) = 0 but tax on severance/retirement lump sum (code 4115) > 0, then the tax number is optional.
  • IT3(a) certificates
    • Where PAYE (code 4102 and code 4115) are both zero, the tax number becomes compulsory unless the Reason code is either:
      • 02 (Earnings below the tax threshold), or
      • 04 (Non-taxable earnings, including nil directives).

Although these validations have been part of the framework since the 2022/2023 tax year, they were previously treated only as warnings during e@syFile™ imports. They are now enforced as mandatory.

What employers need to do

Employers should review their payroll data in advance of the submission season opening on 22 September 2025, ensuring that all affected employees have valid tax reference numbers captured on their records.

How to identify and resolve missing tax numbers

1. Review outstanding numbers

  • Run the Dynamic Employee Details Report.
  • Select “Tax Reference Number” to see which employees are missing mandatory TRNs.

2. Employee-driven options (employee retrieves their own TRN)

3. Employer-driven options (retrieving numbers for existing registered employees)

  • eFiling TRN Enquiry Service (single or bulk requests)
    • Activate the Tax Reference Number Request service on your organisation’s eFiling profile.
    • Employers can submit a single TRN request (reason: Employer to employee relationship) or send a bulk request via SARS’s third-party channel.
    • Results will return either the employee’s TRN or a status message (e.g. “Existing tax number found”).

4. Employer-driven options (registering employees on their behalf)

  • e@syFile™ Employer IT Registration request: Guide link
  • Bulk ITREG via EMP501: SARS automatically registers unregistered employees included in your reconciliation. New TRNs can then be retrieved by synchronising the e@syFile™ Taxpayer Income Tax Registration function.

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