Pretoria, 2 June 2017 – As at 31 May 2017 which was the closure of the Annual Employer Reconciliation Declaration submissions for the period 1 March 2016 to 28 February 2017, SARS received 248 639 employer reconciliation submissions which accounted for 16 127 446 IRP 5 certificates being submitted.

The submissions of employer reconciliation declarations are crucial in ensuring that SARS is able to issue taxpayers with their IRP5/IT3 (a) certificates. These allow taxpayers to file their personal income tax returns on time during Tax Season, which commences on 1 July 2017.  The information is also used by SARS to pre-populate taxpayers 2017 personal income tax returns, making it easier for taxpayers to submit their tax returns.

SARS would like to appeal to those employers who have not yet submitted their reconciliation declarations to do so as soon as possible. Failure to submit employer reconciliations would impact negatively on employees as they would not be able to submit their income tax returns.