The interim EMP501 for 2026 opened on 21 September and closes on 31 October. It reconciles the PAYE, UIF and SDL you declared from 1 March to 31 August 2026, and SARS requires every employer to submit it. This season SARS has tightened several validations, added new fields for foreign national employees and released a version of e@syFile that cannot simply be updated in place. Here is what changed, what to reconcile before you press submit, and what a late or rejected reconciliation costs.
The dates and who has to file
The submission window runs from 21 September to 31 October 2026. The interim reconciliation covers the first six months of the tax year that ends in February 2027, so March to August 2026.
You can submit on eFiling or through e@syFile Employer. eFiling accepts up to 50 IRP5 and IT3(a) certificates per submission, so larger payrolls generally go through e@syFile, which has no certificate limit. Employers with five or fewer certificates who cannot use either channel can book an appointment at a SARS branch.
What is new this season
Most of the changes sit inside the certificate data, which is where rejections usually come from.
- New source codes for employee identity: 3061 (additional ID number), 3067 (expired asylum seeker permit number), 3071 (expired passport number), 3076 (expired passport country of issue) and 3081 (country of birth). If you employ foreign nationals, check their documents on the payroll before you reconcile.
- Changed field types and validations on a range of existing codes, including 3696, 3699, 4118 and 4150. A file that passed in the annual reconciliation in May is not guaranteed to pass now.
- Employment Taxes Validation now checks the status of tax directives. Lump sums, severance packages and other payments taxed on a directive are checked against it, so the directive number on each certificate has to be right.
- Revised Employment Tax Incentive declarations now go to an internal review at SARS instead of straight through.
- A saved EMP201 that is submitted more than 30 days after it was saved is first refreshed with SARS's latest information.
- After you submit, SARS now sends a receipt acknowledgement to the channel you used, and the reconciliation shows as received and being processed.
The e@syFile catch
Moving from e@syFile version 8.0.1 to 8.0.2 needs a full uninstall and reinstall from the SARS eFiling website, not an in-app update. Back up your e@syFile data before you uninstall. SARS deployed a further build, 8.0.2_418, on 2 October 2026 with an updated EMP501 form version, so if you installed early, check which build you are on before you submit.
What to reconcile before you submit
The reconciliation ties three sets of numbers together for the six months: what you declared on your monthly EMP201 returns, what you actually paid SARS, and what your employee tax certificates add up to. Work through them in this order.
- PAYE, UIF and SDL per the payroll against each EMP201 filed for March to August. Where a month was wrong, correct that EMP201 rather than forcing the totals to balance on the EMP501.
- Payments against your SARS statement of account. Penalties and interest are excluded from the reconciliation.
- Pre-populated interim IRP5 and IT3(a) figures, amended wherever they differ from the correct amounts.
- A valid income tax reference number for every employee. SARS warns that missing or invalid numbers may delay processing and can get the submission rejected.
- Directive numbers on any lump sum or severance payment, now that the validation checks them.
- The Employment Tax Incentive claimed each month, since revised ETI declarations now go for review.
Worth knowing
SARS treats any PAYE shortfall picked up in the reconciliation as belonging to the last month of the period, which is August for the interim.
What late or wrong filing costs
A late EMP501 attracts an administrative penalty of 1% of your annual PAYE liability, increasing by 1% for every month the reconciliation stays outstanding, up to a maximum of 10%. On a payroll that deducts R60,000 a month in PAYE, that is R7,200 for the first month late, and up to R72,000 if it is left.
There are knock-on costs too. Employers with unused ETI can forfeit it if they have not submitted or their status is non-compliant. SARS also treats a wilful or negligent failure to submit EMP201 or EMP501 returns as a criminal offence, which carries a fine or imprisonment of up to two years.
Outstanding returns also count against your tax compliance status, which is exactly what a tender panel or a lender checks through your TCS PIN.
If you are running late
Three weeks is enough if you start now. Reconcile month by month from March, fix the EMP201s at source, and keep the last week free for rejections. SARS sends back validation errors, and each one takes time to trace to the payroll and correct.
Once it is in, do not assume it went through. Check the submission status and the PAYE Dashboard on eFiling to confirm SARS has processed it.
Then diarise the next one. The annual reconciliation for the full tax year comes after the year closes on 28 February 2027. In 2026 that window ran from 1 April to 31 May, and a clean interim makes it far quicker.
PayStream prepares and submits interim and annual EMP501 reconciliations as part of its monthly payroll service, and fixes inherited EMP201 errors before they reach SARS. If yours is behind, you will have a written quote within 48 hours.
Sources: SARS: Employer Interim Filing Season opens 21 September 2026 · SARS: Employer interim declarations, 21 September to 31 October 2026 · SARS: e@syFile release notes 8.0.2_418 · SARS: Pay As You Earn
