Interim EMP501: employers have until 31 October 2026

If you run a payroll, the interim employer reconciliation (EMP501) is open now and closes on Saturday, 31 October 2026. It covers everything you paid employees from 1 March 2026 to 31 August 2026, and it is submitted through eFiling or SARS's e@syFile Employer.

What has to agree

The EMP501 is a three-way match. SARS compares:

1. What you declared each month on your EMP201s (PAYE, UIF and SDL)

2. What you actually paid to SARS against those declarations

3. What appears on each employee's IRP5/IT3(a) tax certificate

When those three numbers don't line up, the submission is rejected or flagged, and the difference usually traces back to a single month — a late payment allocated to the wrong period, a correction run on payroll but not on the EMP201, or a terminated employee whose final pay was processed after the fact.

What SARS is enforcing this season

• Income tax numbers are mandatory. Since the February 2026 employer season, SARS strictly enforces valid income tax reference numbers for employees. Missing or invalid numbers can stall or reject the whole submission. Collect them now, or register employees through the employer channels SARS provides.
• Use the current software version. SARS releases a new e@syFile build for each season. Capturing on an old version creates rework.
• Check status after you submit. A submitted EMP501 is not the same as an accepted one. Review the submission status and your PAYE statement on eFiling afterwards.

What late filing costs

SARS can levy an administrative penalty of 1% of your annual PAYE liability for late submission, increasing monthly to a maximum of 10%. Employers claiming the Employment Tax Incentive (ETI) also risk losing unused ETI if they are non-compliant. The penalty is avoidable; the reconciliation work is not, so it is better done early.

A quick pre-submission checklist

• Reconcile each month's EMP201 to your bank payments to SARS
• Confirm every employee has a valid tax number, ID or passport number, and correct address details
• Review terminations and new starters between March and August
• Compare payroll totals to your general ledger salary accounts
• Resolve differences before you generate certificates — not after

Need help?

Our payroll services include monthly EMP201 submissions and both annual and interim EMP501 reconciliations, from R350 per employee per month excl. VAT.

Submission dates are as published by SARS for the 2026 interim period. Confirm on sars.gov.za before filing.