Provisional tax deadlines from each company’s own year-end

Provisional tax lets SARS collect income tax in instalments during the year rather than all at once after assessment. Most companies are provisional taxpayers, and for an accounting practice the challenge is that the payment dates are not the same for every client. They depend on each company’s own financial year-end. This guide sets out how the two compulsory periods are calculated, gives examples for common year-ends, and explains why a single set of dates for the whole client list causes missed deadlines.

The two compulsory periods

First period. The first provisional tax payment is due six months after the start of the financial year – on the last day of the sixth month of that year. For a company whose year runs from 1 March to the end of February, the first period ends on 31 August.

Second period. The second payment is due on the last day of the financial year itself – the company’s financial year-end.

Weekends and public holidays. When a due date falls on a Saturday, Sunday or South African public holiday, the payment is due on the last business day before it. It moves earlier, not later.

The optional third payment. A voluntary third (top-up) payment can be made after year-end to reduce interest on any shortfall. It is optional, so Compliance Tracker does not send reminders for it in this version – speak to your client about whether it applies.

Examples by year-end

These dates are calculated by the Compliance Tracker rules engine – the same code that generates your clients’ deadlines – using the published 2026–2027 public holiday list.

Take the February year-end: the financial year ending February 2027 has its first period on 31 August 2026. The year-end, 28 February 2027, is a Sunday, so the second payment is due on the previous business day, Friday, 26 February 2027.

A June year-end company pays on 31 December and 30 June; a September year-end company pays on 31 March and 30 September. Neither has anything due in August or February.

Why “31 August and end of February” is wrong for many clients

Individuals and many companies have a February year-end, so the August and February dates are the ones most people remember. But companies can choose their own financial year-end, and a typical practice has clients with June, September and December year-ends as well. Using one fixed pair of dates for everyone means:

• non-February clients get reminders in the wrong months, or none at all;
• payments due on 31 December or 31 March can be missed during holiday periods;
• the weekend rule is easy to forget, so a payment planned for the last day of the month can be late.

Late or under-estimated provisional tax can attract penalties and interest from SARS, so the dates are worth getting right for every client.

Make it automatic with your client import

Compliance Tracker generates both provisional tax periods from each company’s financial year-end. Include the year-end in your CSV or Excel import – as a month number, a month name such as “Feb”, or a date such as 28/02 – and mark the company as a provisional taxpayer. The first and second period dates are created straight away, adjusted for weekends and public holidays, and the next year’s dates are added automatically once each one passes.

Reminder emails go to the practice, the client company or both, 42, 14 and 3 days before each due date. The same dashboard covers CIPC annual returns, B-BBEE certificate expiry, VAT, EMP501 and tax clearance dates.

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Related guides

• CIPC annual return deadlines
• B-BBEE certificate expiry
• Compliance Tracker pricing and plans
• All deadline rules and the published test pack