Your IRP5 is the tax certificate your employer issues at the end of each South African tax year showing everything you earned and every rand of PAYE deducted from your pay. To read your IRP5, you match each amount against its numerical source code, confirm those figures against your own payslips, and then use them to check the prepopulated numbers on your ITR12 return before you submit. Do that carefully and the certificate does most of the filing work for you.
IRP5 or IT3(a): Which One You Hold
Not every employee gets an IRP5. SARS issues two employee tax certificates, and which one you receive depends on whether PAYE was actually withheld from your income. An IRP5 is issued when tax was due and your employer deducted it. An IT3(a) is issued when no tax was due, for example because your earnings fell below the annual filing threshold; it carries source code 4150 to explain why no tax came off. The layout and code structure are the same on both certificates. Only the IRP5 reflects actual tax paid to SARS on your behalf, so only the IRP5 can produce a PAYE refund.
Reading the Source Codes
Every line on an IRP5 is tagged with a numerical source code rather than a written description. These codes are standardized across every employer in the country, so 3601 means the same thing on a certificate from a bank as it does on one from a small business. Learning the handful of codes that matter most is what turns the certificate from a wall of numbers into something you can verify.
Income Codes
Code 3601 is the one most salaried employees will see first. It covers your basic salary or wages for the tax year, including any backdated pay that accrued in the current year of assessment. If you earned foreign-services income, the equivalent code is 3651.
Code 3699 is the total of your salary, taxable benefits, and other employment-related earnings rolled into one figure. This is your gross taxable employment income, and it is the baseline SARS uses to calculate your tax. Anything reported under code 3696 (non-taxable income) is excluded from the 3699 total.
PAYE Deduction Codes
Code 4102 shows the total employees’ tax (PAYE) your employer withheld and paid over to SARS for the year. This is the figure that determines whether you get a refund or owe a balance: if the PAYE deducted exceeds your actual tax liability for the year, the difference comes back to you. Code 4101 also appears under the employees’ tax section but covers a different component of the withholding. When you are verifying your certificate, treat 4102 as the summary of what was paid on your behalf.
Travel Allowance: Code 3701
If your employer pays you a fixed travel allowance for using your own car on business, that amount sits under code 3701. The allowance is fully taxable, but your employer typically withholds PAYE on only 80% of it as a monthly default. At filing time the full allowance is added back to your taxable income, and you offset it by claiming the business kilometres you actually drove, using either actual vehicle costs (fuel, insurance, maintenance, depreciation) or SARS’s deemed cost-per-kilometre table based on the vehicle’s value.
Either method requires a logbook. You need odometer readings on 1 March and the last day of February, plus a continuous record of every trip showing the date, opening and closing odometer readings, distance, and business purpose. Travel between your home and a regular workplace counts as private and cannot be claimed. Without a logbook, SARS will disallow the deduction entirely, which often produces an unexpected tax bill.
When Your IRP5 Should Arrive
South Africa’s tax year runs from 1 March to the last day of February.1South African Revenue Service. Personal Income Tax Your employer cannot hand you an IRP5 until they have submitted an acceptable EMP501 (Employer Reconciliation Declaration) to SARS. The restriction sits in paragraph 14(5) of the Fourth Schedule to the Income Tax Act 58 of 1962.2South African Revenue Service. Guide for Completion and Submission of Employees Tax Certificates 2026
Employers reconcile twice a year: an interim submission covering 1 March to 31 August, and the annual submission covering the full tax year.3South African Revenue Service. Reconciliations The annual reconciliation window typically opens in April or May after the tax year closes, and once SARS accepts the EMP501 your employer can issue your IRP5. If you resign, retire, or are terminated mid-year, you should receive your certificate shortly after departure; the paragraph 14(5) restriction does not apply in those situations.
Using the IRP5 to File Your Return
When filing season opens, usually in July for non-provisional taxpayers, your IRP5 figures should already be prepopulated in your ITR12 on eFiling or the SARS MobiApp.4South African Revenue Service. Guide to Submit Your Individual Income Tax Return via eFiling Your job is to verify that the preloaded numbers match the hard-copy certificate from your employer. Work through the codes systematically: confirm that 3601 matches your salary, that 3699 matches your gross income, and that 4102 reflects the total PAYE deducted. If a figure is off, resolve it before submitting. Filing with incorrect data creates complications that take far longer to fix than getting the numbers right the first time.
If your IRP5 reflects medical aid contributions, check those too. The medical scheme fees tax credit is applied automatically when SARS processes your return, but errors on the certificate flow straight into a lower credit.
Once you confirm the details and submit, SARS generates a Notice of Assessment (ITA34) breaking down your income, deductions, and tax credits, and telling you whether you owe or are due a refund.5South African Revenue Service. Monthly Tax Digest July 2025 Automated returns process within seconds. Where a refund is due and your banking details are correct, SARS deposits it within 72 business hours of the assessment.6Public Sector Manager. 2025 Tax Filing Season Opens What You Need to Know Returns flagged for manual verification take longer and may require supporting documents.
If SARS Auto-Assesses You
SARS increasingly issues auto-assessments rather than waiting for taxpayers to file manually. Using third-party data, primarily your IRP5, medical aid certificates, and investment income reports from banks, SARS prepopulates and assesses the return for you. If you are selected, SARS sends an SMS or email, and you review the assessment through eFiling or the MobiApp.
You have 40 business days from the date of the notification to act. If the auto-assessment accurately reflects your income and deductions, accept it. If anything is missing, such as freelance income, rental income, travel allowance deductions, or retirement annuity contributions SARS did not account for, reject the auto-assessment and file your own return within the same 40-day window. Letting the deadline pass effectively accepts the assessment as final. Accepting one does not shield you from later audits either; SARS can still request supporting documents for up to five years.
When Your IRP5 Is Missing or Wrong
If your employer has not provided your IRP5 or the figures on it are incorrect, start with the payroll department. A written request, email is fine because you want a paper trail, asking for a corrected reissue is usually the fastest fix. Pull your monthly payslips and bank statements together as evidence of what you actually earned and what tax was deducted.
If payroll is unresponsive, check your SARS eFiling profile. Log in and request your ITR12. If your employer submitted the EMP501, the IRP5 data may already be prepopulated even though you never received the paper certificate, and you can work from those figures.
When neither route works, because the employer has not submitted and will not cooperate, the escalation is more involved. You can swear an affidavit at a police station stating that you are unable to obtain your IRP5 and explaining why. Book an appointment at a SARS branch and take the affidavit along with all available proof of earnings, including payslips, bank statements, and your employment contract. A SARS consultant can help you complete the return from that alternative evidence. You can also lodge a formal complaint with SARS about the employer’s non-compliance.7South African Revenue Service. Lodge a Complaint If SARS itself fails to resolve the issue, the Office of the Tax Ombud offers an independent avenue, though you must exhaust SARS’s internal complaint process first.8Office of the Tax Ombud. Process to Lodge a Complaint
How Long to Keep Your IRP5
SARS requires you to keep your original IRP5 certificates and supporting documents for at least five years from the date you submitted the relevant return.9South African Revenue Service. Record Keeping If you were required to file and did not, the five-year clock never starts and you must keep records indefinitely until the return is submitted. If SARS notifies you of an audit or investigation, hold everything until it concludes, regardless of how many years have passed. Records must be kept in their original form, stored in an orderly and safe manner, and made available if SARS asks to inspect them.
Keep digital copies alongside the originals. IRP5 certificates printed on thermal paper fade within a couple of years, and a faded certificate is no help during an audit five years later.