SARS Makes Trust Return Penalties Official — The Clock Is Now Ticking
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Your trust clients have been warned. Now it's in the Government Gazette. On 27 March 2026, SARS Commissioner Edward Kieswetter signed and gazetted Notice 7314, formally listing the failure by a trust to submit an income tax return as an incidence of non-compliance subject to a fixed amount penalty under sections 210 and 211 of the Tax Administration Act, 2011.
This is not a policy statement or a press release. It is a legally binding notice. The penalty mechanism is now formally activated.
What the notice says
The trigger for the fixed amount penalty is specific. It applies where:
A trust has failed to submit its income tax return as required under the Income Tax Act
For years of assessment commencing on or after 1 March 2023
SARS has issued that trust with a final demand, referencing this notice and requiring submission of the outstanding return, and
The trust fails to submit within 21 business days of the date of the final demand.
Once those conditions are met, the fixed amount penalty under section 211 applies. The penalty amount is determined by the trust's assessed loss or taxable income and can range from R250 to R16 000 per month, imposed for up to 35 months.
Background: Why this matters now
SARS has been signalling this move for some time. As covered in our earlier article on non-compliant trusts and incoming penalties, SARS flagged high levels of non-compliance among trusts — covering registration, filing, and payment — and signalled it would no longer extend leniency. In February 2026, a public notice warned that final demands were imminent for trusts that had not submitted their 2024 and 2025 returns.
The gazette notice is the formal legal step that gives SARS the authority to impose fixed amount penalties, rather than only percentage-based administrative penalties, for trust return non-submission. It is the mechanism that converts a warning into a fine.
What trustees and their advisors must do now
The 21-business-day window in a final demand is not negotiable. If your trust client receives one, the clock starts immediately.
Prioritise the following:
Check the trust's filing status for all years of assessment from 1 March 2023 onwards as the notice applies retrospectively to that date. Any outstanding ITR12T returns from the 2024 or 2025 filing seasons need to be submitted now, before a final demand is issued. As covered in our overview of the 2025/2026 trust filing season, all trusts — active or dormant — must file annually. A trust that has done nothing for three years is not under the radar. It is overdue.
Also check the trust's registered details on the SARS RAV01 system. A final demand sent to an outdated address does not extend the 21-day window.
If a penalty has already been raised and the trust has reasonable grounds to dispute it, a remission request or formal objection is the route, but compliance first. SARS is unlikely to consider remission while returns remain outstanding.
The message from SARS is clear. File the return. File it now.
