SARS Trust Season 2026: Fewer Excuses, More Penalties
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Trust returns open on 19 September 2026. Eleven days later the IT3(t) deadline lands, on the same day as the top-up provisional payment. And this year SARS has quietly removed the defence you used to fall back on when an honest mistake slipped through.
If you carry trust clients, read this before the diary fills up.
The dates you cannot move
31 August 2026 - First provisional tax payment for the 2027 year of assessment
19 September 2026 - ITR12T submissions open
30 September 2026 - IT3(t) return deadline
30 September 2026- Top-up provisional payment for the 2026 year of assessment
22 January 2027 - Final deadline for all trust returns, provisional and non-provisional
28 February 2027 - Second provisional tax payment for the 2027 year of assessment.
SARS puts the filing duty on the appointed representative taxpayer, which its notice describes as the trustee or the tax practitioner. In practice the trustees carry the legal obligation, and the penalties land on the trust. But if your practice is the registered representative or the one filing on record, the deadline sits on your desk. Manage it as your risk, even though the liability stays with the client.
Two of those dates sit on 30 September. The IT3(t) feeds the ITR12T of the following year, so anything wrong in the IT3(t) becomes wrong in the return. Build your workflow around that week now, not in the last week of September.
The change that should worry you most
SARS is proposing to removing the exemption for a "bona fide inadvertent error" from section 222(1) of the Tax Administration Act.
If the proposed amendment takes effect, an honest mistake would no longer provide a general defence against an understatement penalty. SARS indicates that understatement penalties may therefore apply more broadly where tax has been understated, subject to the relevant provisions of the Tax Administration Act. For trust practitioners, that makes careful review and supporting documentation even more important before the return is submitted.
We unpacked the full mechanics of this in SARS Gets New Teeth: Tax Administration Changes That Affect Your Practice, including the narrow disclosure-and-opinion pathway that survives, and the substantial understatement threshold. If you have not read it, read it before you sign off a single trust return.
What this means in practice is simple. Your review file is now your defence file. Vested amounts, source codes, beneficiary details and distribution resolutions all have to be checked and evidenced before submission, not explained afterwards.
There is one piece of relief on the dispute side. Section 164 has been broadened. Your client can now ask for a suspension of payment when they intend to dispute a liability, including tax debt from an estimated assessment, and that request can be made before the objection or appeal is formally lodged. The condition is that the required return or relevant material has been submitted. That gives you breathing room on cash flow while you build the objection, provided the filing is done.
One more procedural note. Under section 11(4), no High Court proceedings may be instituted against the Commissioner unless the applicant has given at least ten business days' written notice, in the prescribed form, of the intention to litigate. Diarise that lead time in any dispute strategy.
Legislative changes that hit trust structures directly
Section 7(5): a change in tax residence can end the deemed accrual.
Previously, income continued to be deemed to have accrued to the donor until a condition or event occurred, or until the donor’s death. The amendment introduces an additional trigger: if the donor ceases to be a South African tax resident, the income will no longer be deemed to have accrued to that donor, even if the relevant condition has not occurred and the donor is still alive. The change applies from 1 March 2026 for years of assessment starting on or after that date.
If you have a donor client who has ceased, or is considering ceasing, to be a South African tax resident, this change warrants a review of the trust’s tax position. Check the relevant files and consider whether the change affects the attribution of income under section 7(5). It is worth raising with the client before the return is prepared.
Section 25B: the flow-through rule is now clearer.
The amendment spells out how section 25B interacts with the anti-avoidance rules in sections 7(2) to 7(8). Income vested in resident beneficiaries may be taxed in their hands. Income vested in non-resident beneficiaries is taxed in the trust. Where section 7 applies, the income may still be taxed in the donor's hands. This also applies from 1 March 2026. The direction has been building for a while, as we noted in SARS Trust Tax Season 2025.
Section 1: insolvent estates.
The definition of "representative taxpayer" now makes clear that a trustee or administrator of an insolvent estate, acting in a representative capacity, is responsible for income received by or accrued to the insolvent estate before sequestration.
Paragraph 82A and paragraph 61 of the Eighth Schedule.
Capital distributions by collective investment schemes, where the amount is not included in income or gross income, must be treated as capital gains in the hands of investors. Investors include the amount in their capital gains calculation with no base cost offset allowed. Paragraph 61 now opens with "Subject to paragraph 82A", which means these distributions can trigger capital gains tax even where no units were disposed of. If your trust clients hold unit trusts, this is a real number on the return.
Sections 18(2B) and 18(2C): the PBO certificate.
The audit certificate requirement for public benefit organisations issuing section 18A receipts is replaced with a certificate containing information under 18(2B) confirming, to the reasonable satisfaction of a registered tax practitioner, that all donations covered by section 18A receipts were used for approved public benefit activities. Under 18(2C), the PBO submits a certificate to the Commissioner on the same basis. Both take effect on the date of promulgation.
Look at that carefully. The legislation now names the registered tax practitioner as the person who has to be reasonably satisfied. If you have PBO trust clients, that is a defined engagement with a defined output. Scope it, price it, and do not fold it into the annual fee for free.
Sunset dates extended - Energy Efficiency Savings
Section 12L energy efficiency savings now runs for any year of assessment ending before 1 January 2031, effective 1 January 2026.
Urban Development Zones (UDZ)
Section 13quat urban development zones runs until 2030, deemed effective from 1 April 2025 for buildings or improvements brought into use on or after that date.
What changes on the return itself
SARS is doing more of the capture for you. That is good for time and bad for anyone who trusts a prepopulated field without checking it.
Income, vested amounts and certain expense information will be prepopulated from IT3(t) data where available.
Beneficiary schedules will be prepopulated from IT3(t) information where available.
New containers will determine and analyse the impact of section 25B(4) to (6).
Filing rules will be aligned with the annual Government Notice, so the system identifies which trusts are legally required to file.
Tax practitioner contact details are now mandatory.
Continuous save is being introduced, so captured information is not lost during periods of inactivity.
Automated SMS reminders will nudge trust taxpayers to file and pay on time.
A taxpayer experience survey appears after submission.
The prepopulation theme runs across the whole of Filing Season 2026, as we covered in Updated SARS Guides for Filing Season 2026. The rule is the same for trusts as for individuals. Prepopulated is not the same as correct. Verify every figure against the trust's own records and the financial statements.
Two changes worth flagging to your admin team:
Master's reference number.
You can now amend an incorrect Master's reference number directly on the ITR12T, subject to validation against SARS registration information. Changes are still limited to the current field length. SARS says a future enhancement will allow the full reference number as it appears on the Letters of Authority, once the field has been widened.
Special trust qualification.
The special trust questions have been improved to confirm whether the trust still meets the qualifying criteria during the year of assessment. If it no longer qualifies, the trust type must be updated before the return can be submitted. Right now that correction can only be made at a SARS branch, because supporting documents must be submitted and verified. Branch appointments in October are not a plan. Check your special trust clients this month.
Beneficial ownership on the return. Founder questions have been enhanced to cover cases where the founder is a legal entity that no longer exists, in addition to deceased natural persons. Collective investment schemes may submit beneficial ownership information, but it is not mandatory for them. This sits alongside the trustees' separate duty to lodge beneficial ownership with the Master of the High Court, where the penalties remain severe, as set out in Trusts Are Warned to Submit Beneficial Ownership Information.
What to do this week
Pull your trust client list. Split it into three groups: special trusts, trusts with non-resident beneficiaries, and trusts holding unit trusts. Each group has a different change to apply.
Check special trust status now. If any client no longer qualifies, book the SARS branch visit before the return period gets busy. You cannot fix this on eFiling yet.
Flag every emigrated or emigrating donor. Section 7(5) changes who is taxed from 1 March 2026. Raise it before the return, in writing.
Get the IT3(t) right first. It feeds the ITR12T. Fixing it upstream is cheaper than reversing it downstream.
Update your review checklist. Add a sign-off line for prepopulated data verified against financial statements. With the honest mistake defence gone, that checklist is your evidence.
Scope the PBO certificate work separately. If a client issues section 18A receipts, the new certificate names you. Quote for it.
Load your practice contact details on eFiling. Tax practitioner contact details are now mandatory on the return.
Watch for the updated guide. SARS will publish a refreshed Comprehensive Guide to the Income Tax Return for Trusts for the 2026 season.
None of this is optional work. All of it is chargeable work. The practices that fall behind will be the ones treating trust season as admin instead of advisory.
📎 Read more in the original SARS notice.
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