SARS Rewired Tax Directives. Are You Ready?
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A client wants their retirement lump sum paid out this week. You log into eFiling to apply, and the menu you have used for years has moved. The percentage box you used to type into on the IRP3(b)? Gone too. SARS has reworked how tax directives work on eFiling, and the new External Guide (Revision 8, effective 29 May 2026) spells out changes that hit your day-to-day workflow. Here is what actually changed, and why it matters for your fees, your time, and your risk.
Tax Directives now lives at the top of the menu
The first thing you will notice is that the Tax Directive function has moved out of the old "Services" menu. It now sits as its own top-level "Tax Directives" item, with all directive-related options grouped under it, including previous years. If you bookmarked the old path or trained your staff to click through "Services", update that now. A few wasted minutes per application adds up fast during a busy directive season.
Alongside this, the old "Tax Directives, prior 2017" label has been renamed "Tax Directives prior 17 April 2026". Older directive transactions are stored there as read-only history. One catch worth knowing: that history is only available on the profile that originally issued the directive. If you switch your default profile, directives raised on the previous profile stay on that profile and can only be viewed from it. Plan your profile setup before you start raising new directives, not after.
The IRP3(b) percentage is no longer yours to choose
This is the change most likely to catch practitioners off guard. On the IRP3(b) application (fixed percentage employees' tax), you can no longer pick a percentage of your own choosing. The process is now fully automated. The system calculates the percentage from the income and expenses declared on the application. If your advice to commission earners or personal service company clients relied on nominating a comfortable rate, that approach is over. Set client expectations early, because the number SARS returns is the number that applies.
This connects to the wider tax directive system overhaul that took effect from 17 April 2026, which we covered in SARS Updates Tax Directives System. Read it alongside this guide so you see both the eFiling changes and the legislative ones in one view.
Two new calculators before you commit
The eFiling dashboard now carries two calculators that let you model tax before you submit anything.
The Two-pot calculator estimates the tax on a savings component withdrawal based on annual income and the amount your client plans to take. It also shows any outstanding SARS debt that will be pulled from the payout, broken into assessed, penalty, and provisional debt, plus any outstanding returns. That means you can warn a client up front that their R30,000 withdrawal might land as far less in their account. As we explained in Pension Withdrawals and Tax Implications, debt and unfiled returns sink these payouts fast.
The Lump Sum Calculator gives a simulated tax figure on a lump sum across fund, employer, and insurer scenarios. Note one limit: it is available on Individual and Tax Practitioner profiles only. On the Organisation profile you will get an "Access Denied" message. Use these calculators as a billable advisory step. Showing a client the real net figure before they apply is exactly the kind of value the market overlooks and you should charge for.
Clearer tax type names when you activate the function
When you activate the directive tax type, the two options are now described more plainly, and the distinction matters:
Tax Directives, Individuals links to the personal income tax reference number. This is for the Tax Practitioner profile.
Tax Directives, Companies links to the selected taxpayer's PAYE reference number. This is for the Organisation profile.
Only one of the two can be activated. If you pick the wrong one for your profile, your applications will not go through. The same clarification now appears in three places in the guide: when activating the tax type, when creating a new rights group, and when activating an existing group. Get the rights and authorisation level right the first time. A "View Only" user, for example, cannot submit applications or download the tax rate file.
On that point, employers with 50 or fewer employees can now download their tax rate file from the EMP501 Work Page, but only if their user rights are set to "Submission" or "Completion". "View Only" will not see the download.
A reports function you can actually use
The guide adds a tax directive Reports tool, reached through Tax Directives, then Request, then Reports.
You can filter by date, tick "Finalized only", and use quick-select buttons for Today, Last 7 Days, Last 30 Days, This Month, or Last Month. "View" generates the report on screen, "Save" downloads it as an Excel file, and a "Show/Hide Columns" button lets you pull in fields like Issue Date, PAYE number, FSCA number, reason, date of accrual, and IRP3e number.
For a practice managing directives across many clients, this is a quiet win. It is a fast way to reconcile which directives were issued, match directive numbers to IRP5 and IT3(a) certificates, and check nothing is missing before you finalise an annual return.
What to do today
Update your own and your staff's muscle memory: the function is under the top-level "Tax Directives" menu now.
Check your profile rights before directive season. Confirm whether you need "Tax Directives, Individuals" or "Tax Directives, Companies", and that submitters are not stuck on "View Only".
Stop promising IRP3(b) percentages. Let the system calculate, and brief clients accordingly.
Run the Two-pot or Lump Sum Calculator before any withdrawal application, and bill it as advice.
Pull the new Reports export to reconcile directives against IRP5 and IT3(a) certificates.
Get these right and tax directives shift from a panicked, error-prone scramble into a clean, repeatable, billable service.