Provisional Tax Calculator (IRP6)

What each provisional payment should be for 2026/2027, and when it is due.

Provisional tax is not a separate tax. It is the year’s income tax paid in two instalments before the return is filed, so that SARS is not waiting a year for the money. Estimate what the business or you will be taxed on, say which payment is coming up, and the calculator works out the amount and shows all three periods.

Provisional tax (IRP6) calculator
Who is paying?

Profit after allowable expenses for the whole year, the same figure the ITR14 will show.

Have the IRP6 filed, not just estimated

Govchain prepares and submits both IRP6 returns and the ITR14 through a registered tax practitioner, from R270 a return for a dormant company and R1 250 for a trading one.

File my provisional tax return
Not sure what the company owes for the year?Run the company tax calculator

Who pays provisional tax

Every company, close corporation and trust, whatever it earns. An individual joins the list when they earn income that is not a salary: a sole proprietor, a freelancer, a landlord, a director paid by dividends. Two carve-outs keep most employees out. If your income outside salary is R30,000 or less for the year you are not a provisional taxpayer, and neither are you if your total taxable income is under the tax threshold (R99,000 under 65) and you earn no business income. Interest inside the annual exemption does not count.

Being a provisional taxpayer does not change how much tax you pay. It changes when: two estimates during the year instead of one bill afterwards.

The three payments for 2026/2027

PaymentDueAmount
First (IRP6)31 August 2026Half the tax on the estimated taxable income for the year, less half the PAYE expected for the year
Second (IRP6)28 February 2027The full year’s tax on an updated estimate, less PAYE and the first payment
Third (voluntary)30 September 2027Whatever the first two left short, paid before interest starts

The dates above are for a February year end, which is every individual and most small companies. A company with another year end pays six months into its year, on the last day of its year, and six months after it.

For the first payment SARS lets you use the basic amount, the taxable income on your last assessment, bumped up by 8% a year when that assessment is more than 18 months old. It saves forecasting in August. The second payment is the one that has to be a real estimate.

Underestimate the second payment and SARS adds 20%

Paragraph 20 of the Fourth Schedule measures the second estimate against the taxable income SARS eventually assesses. If actual taxable income is over R1 million, the estimate had to be at least 80% of it. At R1 million or under, at least 90% of it, or at least the basic amount. Miss the line and the penalty is 20% of the tax on the shortfall. It is levied automatically, and the only way out is a remission request showing the estimate was seriously calculated and not deliberately low.

Paying late is a separate 10% penalty on the amount, plus interest. A second estimate that is honestly wrong because the last quarter surprised you can be fixed with the third payment, which stops the interest but not a paragraph 20 penalty. The practical rule for a business with lumpy income: estimate high in February and let the assessment refund the difference.

Miss the returns altogether and the admin penalty calculator shows what the unfiled ITR14s cost on top.

Common questions

Does a dormant company have to file an IRP6?
Yes, a nil one. Every company is a provisional taxpayer, so a company with no income files a nil IRP6 for each period and a nil ITR14 at year end. SARS charges the admin penalty on missing ITR14s, and the IRP6 is what keeps the account clean.
I am employed but earn rental income on the side. Am I a provisional taxpayer?
Only if the non-salary income is more than R30,000 a year, or your total taxable income is over the tax threshold and you earn business income. Rental profit of R2,000 a month is R24,000 a year, under the line, so no IRP6. Rental profit of R4,000 a month is over it, and you file, with the PAYE from your salary netted off against the tax.
What happens if I skip the third payment?
Nothing on the day, because it is voluntary. SARS charges interest at the prescribed rate on whatever is still owed from the third-payment date until the assessment is paid, so the top-up is worth making when the second estimate came in low.

More free tools

This calculator is a guide. It applies the 2026/2027 rate tables to the estimate you enter and cannot see your basic amount, foreign tax credits, medical credits or a year end other than February. The IRP6 you file is the number that counts. Rules verified 21 September 2026 against the SARS provisional tax page and the Fourth Schedule.