Trust Season 2026: SARS Confirms ITR12T Pre-Population Bug

20 Sept

Written By Eszter Rapanos, Quality Assurance, Public Sector and Publication Manager, Chartered Institute for Business Accountants (CIBA)

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SARS issued a Notice advising trust taxpayers and practitioners of a system issue affecting the pre-population of certain IT3(t) data on the ITR12T for the 2026 filing season.

The SARS Trust Legislative Changes for the 2026 Filing Season were released on 19 September 2026. The release includes legislative, form and system enhancements aimed at supporting trust tax compliance and improving the taxpayer experience.

Known system issue

SARS has identified an issue that affects trusts when IT3(t) pre-populated data is refreshed where:

a Request for Correction (RFC) has been submitted via eFiling or at a SARS branch; and/or
an original trust return is in issued or saved status on eFiling.

In these circumstances, Source Codes 4251 and 4253 will not automatically pre-populate on the ITR12T.

What practitioners should do

Until the corrective release is implemented, SARS advises taxpayers to manually capture Source Codes 4251 and 4253 where applicable when submitting the trust return. The corrective release is scheduled for 3 October 2026.

Practitioners preparing trust returns should therefore check the IT3(t) information carefully, particularly where a return has been corrected or is already in an issued or saved status, and ensure that the relevant source codes have been captured before submission.