Five Days Out
The first provisional payment for the 2026/27 tax year is due on Monday 31 August 2026. If your estimate is done, this week is about execution: submitting, paying, and confirming. If it isn't done, there's still time to do it properly — but start today, not Sunday night.
Here's the run-through, in order.
1. Lock the Estimate
Finalise your estimated taxable income for the full year — actual income for March to date, annualised with your known contracts and seasonality, less the deductions you can support (business expenses, home office, travel, s11F retirement contributions). If you did this earlier in the month, spend ten minutes re-checking it against August's actual invoicing. Save the working paper with a date on it.
Sanity checks before you commit:
- Does the estimate cover the full year to 28 February 2027, not just year-to-date?
- Have you included all income streams — freelance, rental, taxable interest, any part-time salary?
- Have you deducted PAYE already withheld in the employees' tax field?
- Is the estimate defensible against the pre-populated basic amount? If you're estimating below it, keep the evidence for why.
2. Submit the IRP6 on eFiling
On eFiling, the IRP6 sits under Returns for provisional tax, period 2027-01 (the first period of the 2026/27 year). Capture the estimate, let the form calculate, and check two things before filing:
- The tax calculation reflects the correct rebates for your age.
- The payment reference and period shown on the return match the period you're paying — misallocated payments are a recurring source of phantom "outstanding balances".
Submit now, not on the 31st. eFiling is at its slowest and least reliable in the final 48 hours of a provisional deadline, and submission problems on deadline day are your problem, not SARS's.
3. Pay — and Understand Clearance
Submission moves no money. Make the payment via eFiling credit push or EFT to SARS using the exact payment reference number on the return.
The point people miss: the deadline applies to the payment being made on time, and late-clearing payments are treated as late. A credit push authorised at 22:00 on the 31st may only process the next business day. An EFT from some banks takes more than a day to reflect. Authorise payment by Thursday or Friday before the deadline and the clearance question disappears.
Late payment is expensive and mechanical: a 10% penalty on the unpaid amount under paragraph 27, plus interest — no discretion, no grace period.
4. Confirm and File the Proof
After paying:
- Check your eFiling statement of account a day or two later — the payment should appear against the 2027-01 provisional period.
- Save the submitted IRP6 PDF, the payment confirmation, and your estimate working paper together. These three documents are your answer to any future query about this period, and your February self will want the working paper as the starting point for the second estimate.
5. Set Up February While You're Here
Two minutes of admin now saves a scramble later:
- Diarise the second period: the 2026/27 year ends on Sunday 28 February 2027, which means in practice your February payment should clear by Friday 26 February 2027. Put both dates in the calendar now.
- Note what would change the picture: the February estimate must reflect near-actual figures, and if your taxable income exceeds R1.8 million, the underestimation rules give you very little room. Tracking income monthly between now and then is what makes February easy.
If You've Left It Too Late
If the deadline passes without payment, don't disappear. Submit the return immediately if you haven't, pay what you can as fast as it can clear, and read up on the remission process — penalties can in some circumstances be remitted where there were genuine grounds beyond your control, but only for taxpayers who engaged quickly and have a clean story. We'll cover exactly that scenario in the next article.
For everyone else: submit today, pay by Friday, confirm next week. Then close the tab and get back to work — this is the outcome the whole system is designed around.