SARS Admin Penalty Calculator

Work out what your outstanding tax returns are costing in monthly SARS penalties.

SARS charges a fixed administrative penalty for every month a tax return stays outstanding: between R250 and R16,000 a month per return, depending on your last assessed taxable income. Pick your income band, say how many returns are outstanding and for how long, and the calculator shows the damage so far and what every further month adds.

SARS Admin Penalty Calculator

The year SARS last assessed. Pick “Assessed loss” if the company made a loss. Most small and dormant companies fall in the R0 – R250,000 band.

How long the penalties have been running, or how long you expect to stay behind.

Not sure which returns are outstanding?

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How SARS admin penalties work

The penalty is not a percentage of tax owed. It is a fixed amount per outstanding return, charged again every month the return stays out, for up to 35 months per return. The amount comes from a table in section 211 of the Tax Administration Act and depends on your taxable income in the last year SARS assessed. For a company, SARS first issues a final demand; if the return is still outstanding 21 business days later, the penalties start, and they can be charged for returns going back to the 2009 year of assessment.

Individuals have been in the same net since 1 December 2022, when a single outstanding return became enough to trigger the penalty, and trusts joined the regime in May 2026. The rand amounts in the table have stayed the same since the Act took effect, but SARS shifts its enforcement practice more often than the law changes: treat your eFiling statement of account as the only number that counts.

The penalty table (section 211)

Taxable income (last assessed year)Penalty per return, per month
Assessed lossR250
R0 – R250,000R250
R250,001 – R500,000R500
R500,001 – R1 millionR1 000
R1,000,001 – R5 millionR2 000
R5,000,001 – R10 millionR4 000
R10,000,001 – R50 millionR8 000
Above R50 millionR16 000

The smallest band does the most damage in practice, because it covers exactly the companies most likely to be behind: dormant and barely-trading ones. A dormant company that is three returns behind collects R750 in new penalties every month. Left for a year, that is R9,000, against R810 to file the three nil returns and stop the clock.

Getting the penalties to stop

  1. File the outstanding returns. This is the only thing that stops new months being charged. Govchain files company tax returns from R270 per return for a dormant company.
  2. Ask for remission. Once the returns are in, submit a Request for Remission (RFR1) on eFiling for the penalties already charged.
  3. Dispute if you have to. If SARS disallows the remission, you can object and then appeal.

There is a longer walkthrough in our guide to dealing with SARS admin penalties.

Common questions

How do I check if I have SARS admin penalties?
Log in to eFiling and request a statement of account, or use the SARS Online Query System (SOQS) on the SARS website without logging in. You can also SMS your ID number to 47277. A penalty shows up as a penalty assessment notice and as transactions on the statement of account.
Can SARS waive admin penalties?
Sometimes. Once the outstanding returns are filed, you can submit a Request for Remission (RFR1) on eFiling. SARS tends to remit penalties for a first offence with reasonable grounds (serious illness, no income to declare, SARS error). Repeat non-compliance is rarely remitted in full. If the remission is disallowed, you can still object and then appeal.
Do dormant companies get admin penalties?
Yes. A dormant company with outstanding returns can be penalised after a final demand, and because dormant companies sit in the lowest band, the penalty is typically R250 per return per month. There are narrow exceptions for dormant companies with no assets or liabilities, but do not assume you qualify: check the statement of account. Nil returns are quick to file and stop the penalties.
Does paying the penalty make me compliant?
No. The penalty and the return are separate. Pay the penalty without filing and next month a new penalty lands. File first.

This calculator is a guide. It uses the fixed-amount table in section 211 of the Tax Administration Act and SARS’s stated 35-month maximum, and it leaves out interest, late-payment penalties and understatement penalties, which SARS charges separately. Your eFiling statement of account is the authoritative number. Figures verified 2 July 2026.