ITR14 vs IRP6: A Company's Three SARS Returns, Their Deadlines and Penalties (2026 Guide)

Three returns, one number

Every private company is a provisional taxpayer from the day it exists. There is no form to register for it and no way to opt out. That status is what puts three returns on the calendar each year: two IRP6 returns, each an estimate of the year’s taxable income with a payment attached, and one ITR14, the income tax return that reports what actually happened. SARS then measures the two estimates against the ITR14 figure, and the penalties in the table are about the gaps.

A company that traded nothing still files all three. A nil IRP6 takes a few minutes on eFiling; a nil ITR14 is a short return with a dormant-company tick box. SARS lists dormant companies among the entities corporate income tax applies to, and the administrative penalty for a missing ITR14 does not ask whether the company traded.

IRP6: the two estimates

The first IRP6 falls six months into the year of assessment. For the February year end most South African companies use, that is 31 August, or the last business day before it. The second falls on the last business day of the year of assessment itself, so the last business day of February. Each return carries a payment: the first for half the tax on the estimate, the second for the balance.

Getting the estimate wrong costs more than paying it late. Paying late draws a 10% penalty under Chapter 15 of the Tax Administration Act, on the first and second periods. Estimating low draws the underestimation penalty: 20% of the difference between the tax on your estimate and the tax on the real figure. It applies where the second estimate came in below 90% of actual taxable income and below the basic amount SARS works out from the last assessment, for taxable income of R1 million or less, or below 80% of actual taxable income above R1 million. A company that estimates R400,000 and earns R600,000 has estimated at 67% and pays the 20% on the shortfall.

The third payment is optional and exists to stop interest running between year end and the assessment. It is due by the last business day of September for a February year end, otherwise within six months of year end. Interest on underpaid provisional tax runs at the prescribed rate, around 11% through most of 2025 by SARS’s own table.

Older guides still list a penalty for filing the IRP6 form itself late. There was one. It was deleted for years of assessment starting on or after 1 March 2015, so the two that survive are for paying late and estimating low. If a page tells you otherwise, it was written before 2015 or copied from something that was.

The percentages come from the Tax Administration Act and SARS revises the interest rate twice a year, so read the SARS guide linked in the sources before you rely on a number from here, ours included.

ITR14: the reconciliation

The ITR14 is the return the estimates were guessing at. It is due within 12 months of the financial year end, so a February year end gives you until the end of the following February. It goes in with the annual financial statements, or for a smaller company a financial statement summary on the form, and it produces the assessment that decides whether the year’s provisional payments were enough.

Miss it and the cost is not a percentage. SARS charges a fixed administrative penalty every month the return stays outstanding, from R250 to R16,000 a month depending on the company’s taxable income, for up to 35 months. It stops when the return is filed, and only then. SARS’s own page says to file the outstanding return first and dispute afterwards, through a request for remission, because the clock keeps running while you argue.

There is a knock-on. An outstanding ITR14 makes the company non-compliant on eFiling, and a non-compliant company cannot get the Tax Compliance Status PIN that tenders, the CSD and banks ask for. An unfiled return from years back has a habit of surfacing here: a tender pack asks for the PIN, eFiling refuses it, and the reason turns out to be a return nobody remembered.

A worked year for a February year end

Take a company that registers with the CIPC on 1 March 2026 and keeps the February financial year end most companies choose. Its first year of assessment runs from 1 March 2026 to 28 February 2027.

• 31 August 2026: first IRP6, estimating taxable income for the full year and paying half the tax on it. A new company with no history estimates from its own forecast.
• 26 February 2027: second IRP6, the last business day of February 2027, with the estimate revised and the balance paid. This is the figure the 90% and 80% tests are applied to.
• 30 September 2027: optional third payment if the year turned out better than the February estimate and you want the interest to stop.
• 28 February 2028: ITR14 for the 2027 year of assessment, with the financial statements. The second IRP6 for the 2028 year falls due the same week, so February is always two returns at once.

Any other year end follows the same intervals from its own dates: six months in, the last business day of the year, six months after, twelve months after.

What piles up when a company files nothing

Nothing dramatic happens in the first year. A missed IRP6 draws a 10% penalty on whatever should have been paid, which for a company expecting no tax is 10% of nothing. Then the ITR14 falls due and the administrative penalty starts, a fixed amount every month that does not care whether the company earned anything.

Two years in, the company has two unfiled ITR14s each collecting a monthly penalty, four IRP6s unfiled or paid late, interest on any shortfall, and a non-compliant status on eFiling that blocks a Tax Compliance Status PIN. None of this deregisters the company; that is a CIPC matter tied to annual returns, not a SARS one. It does make the company unusable for anything that asks for a PIN.

Catching up runs in one direction: file the oldest ITR14 first, then each later year, then the current IRP6. Penalties stop accruing the day each return is in. Remission is asked for afterwards, per return, once the return is filed.

Sources

Every figure on this page comes from one of these documents. Check them before quoting a number; the regulators change them without telling anyone who linked the old one.

1. Provisional Tax, SARS, updated 21 August 2026: who pays, and the first, second and third payment dates
2. Guide to Provisional Tax, SARS, updated 15 July 2026: the 10% late-payment and 20% underestimation penalties, the 2015 deletion of the late-submission penalty, and the interest rate table
3. FAQ: When must the ITR14 return be submitted to SARS?, SARS: within 12 months of the financial year end
4. Corporate Income Tax, SARS, updated 19 August 2026: dormant companies are among the entities that must file
5. Admin Penalty, SARS: R250 to R16,000 a month for an outstanding return, recurring for up to 35 months, and the request for remission