Provisional tax deadlines: the 2026 and 2027 IRP6 dates and who has to file

Provisional tax is not a separate tax. It is the same income tax, collected in instalments during the year rather than in one lump after it. If you earn income that is not salary, you are the collector.

The dates

Date	What is due
31 August 2026	First IRP6 - covering the first six months of the year of assessment
30 September 2026	Voluntary third payment to top up the first period
22 January 2027	ITR12 return for provisional taxpayers and trusts
26 February 2027	Second IRP6 - covering the full year

The dates are fixed by the Fourth Schedule to the Income Tax Act and fall on the last business day of the month. A public holiday at the end of February does not move the date; it just means fewer days in which to pay.

Are you a provisional taxpayer?

The test is about the kind of income, not the amount:

• Rental income from a property you let.
• Income from a business, trade or profession - including a side business run while you are employed.
• Commission, in many cases.
• Directors’ fees, for company directors.
• Investment or trust income, in defined circumstances.

If most of your income is a salary with PAYE deducted and you have small amounts of other income, you may still fall inside the definition. The old “R30 000 of non-employment income” carve-out that exempted many people was removed, so the practical test now is whether you have income that PAYE does not cover.

How the estimate works

The first IRP6 covers income for the first six months of the year, annualised - roughly doubled - plus a reasonable estimate of the rest of the year. The second covers the full year’s actual income. The ITR12 then reconciles everything against what you actually earned and deducts the payments made.

The practical consequence: your first estimate anchors the year. Underestimate badly and you either face a penalty or a large payment in February.

What draws a penalty

The underestimation penalty is 20% of the shortfall where the second payment is less than the amount required. There are statutory exceptions, and the most useful one is that an estimate based on your most recently assessed taxable income - where the actual income does not exceed that by more than the permitted margin - is protected. That is why the deduction you claimed last year matters this year.

Interest is separate from the penalty and runs on late payments regardless.

Records to keep

Keep the income and expense records for each period as the period happens. Reconstructing six months of a business’s expenses in February is how mistakes get made, and a provisional taxpayer has an obligation to be able to substantiate the estimate.

Before you submit the IRP6

🖨 Print this checklist

Before you submit the IRP6: tick each item as you complete it

• Income for the period, from actual invoices and bank records
• Expenses you intend to deduct, with the slips
• Last year’s assessment, to check the estimate against it
• PAYE credits already deducted by an employer, if any
• Proof of any provisional tax already paid this year

Ticks are not saved and are not sent anywhere. Nothing you do on this page leaves your device.

How provisional tax relates to the rest of the year

Provisional taxpayers file their full return later than everyone else - 22 January 2027 for the 2026 year of assessment - and the filing season guide covers that side. If you also run a business, the small business tax calendar collects the other obligations, and the tax document checklist is the list to work through before you file either return.

For a sense of whether the total tax for the year looks proportionate to your income, the income tax calculator gives an estimate. It has no knowledge of your SARS record and cannot file or pay anything.

Last reviewed 13 October 2026. Provisional tax dates are set in the Fourth Schedule and published each season; confirm the current year’s dates on the SARS provisional tax page.