South Africa | Income Tax Reference Numbers - Update on Interim EMP501 Submissions

South Africa | Income Tax Reference Numbers - Update on Interim EMP501 Submissions

What’s changed?
SARS has confirmed that the validation rules for employees’ Income Tax Reference Numbers (TRNs), originally planned to be strictly enforced for the 2025/2026 Interim EMP501 submissions, will now be temporarily relaxed.
This decision was made because of the short submission window and the limited notice given to employers regarding the change.
What this means for employers
  1. The current submission period will not be blocked if TRNs are missing in cases where they were previously mandatory.
  2. However, this is the last time the rules will be relaxed. From the February 2026 submissions onwards, all the TRN validation rules in the 2025/2026 BRS will be fully enforced.
Employers should continue registering unregistered employees or retrieving existing TRNs now to avoid delays or non-compliance in future submissions.

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