IRP5 & IT3(a) Certificates: Your Duties When Issuing Tax Certificates
The IRP5 certificate is where your payroll meets your employee’s personal tax life: SARS pre-populates their return from your certificate, so every error you make becomes their assessment problem — and eventually your audit problem. This guide covers what the certificate contains, IRP5 vs IT3(a), the 14-day leaver rule, and the source codes that cause the most confusion.
- ✔IRP5 = tax was deducted; IT3(a) = income paid with no tax deducted.
- ✔Everyone who was paid gets a certificate — directors, part-timers, casuals included.
- ✔Leavers get their certificate within 14 days of leaving.
- ✔Certificate data must match EMP201s and payments — the EMP501 enforces this.
- ✔Wrong certificates follow the employee into their personal tax assessment — and come back to you.
What the IRP5 contains
The certificate reports the employee’s details (ID, tax number, address), the employment period, and every source code amount for the period:
- Income codes — salary/wages (3601), overtime (3607), bonuses (3605), allowances (3701/3713 etc.), fringe benefits (3801 series)
- Deduction codes — PAYE (4102), UIF employee contribution (4141), SDL where shown, provident/pension contributions (4001 series)
- Employer contributions — UIF employer share and benefit fund contributions reported separately
- Directive numbers — where a tax directive changed the normal calculation
Your payroll system or e@syFile Employer generates certificates from the payslip data — another reason clean payslips matter.
IRP5 vs IT3(a)
Issue an IRP5 when employees’ tax was deducted from the person’s remuneration. Issue an IT3(a) when income was paid but no tax was deducted — typically because earnings fell below the tax threshold. Both are certificates, both are submitted with the EMP501, and every person you paid during the year must appear on one or the other.
Employers regularly omit certificates for low earners because ‘no tax was involved’. A missing IT3(a) is an EMP501 non-compliance the same as a missing IRP5 — and the employee may need it for UIF or grant verification.
The 14-day rule for leavers
When an employee leaves — resignation, dismissal, retrenchment — you must issue their certificate within 14 days of the date they ceased employment. Do not hold it hostage for ‘handover’ or ‘company property’: withholding a certificate is a contravention and it does not work as leverage anyway, since the employee can get the data from SARS.
The leaver’s certificate covers the period from 1 March to their last day. At year-end they appear in your EMP501 like everyone else; the early issue just lets them file or claim without waiting for May.
How certificates feed the EMP501 — and the errors that break it
The EMP501 reconciliation sums your certificates and compares them to your EMP201 declarations and actual payments. The mismatches that fail validation:
- Certificate income that never appeared in the EMP201 monthlies
- PAYE on certificates exceeding the PAYE declared and paid
- Employee details (ID/tax number) that do not match SARS records
- Certificates for the wrong period (a leaver loaded into the annual instead of the interim)
- Manual ‘corrections’ on a certificate without fixing the underlying payroll month
Fix certificates at the source — the payroll month — then regenerate. A hand-edited certificate that no longer matches payroll is a finding waiting for an audit.
Finally, remember certificates are POPIA documents — they carry ID numbers, tax numbers and income details. Email them to the employee’s own address only, never to shared mailboxes, and keep the master file access-restricted. See employee privacy notices for the data-handling side.
Always confirm current requirements with the official source — rules and deadlines change.
- ✔Interim & annual EMP501 submissions — request a quote
- ✔IRP5/IT3(a) certificates handled
- ✔Avoid the 10% late-submission penalty
Frequently asked questions
What is an IRP5 certificate?
The employer-issued certificate showing an employee's income, deductions and PAYE for a tax period. SARS uses it to pre-populate the employee's personal tax return, and the EMP501 reconciliation validates your certificates against your monthly EMP201 declarations and payments.
What is the difference between an IRP5 and an IT3(a)?
An IRP5 is issued when employees' tax was deducted from the remuneration; an IT3(a) when income was paid with no tax deducted (typically below the tax threshold). Everyone paid during the year must get one or the other.
How quickly must I give a certificate to an employee who leaves?
Within 14 days of the employment ending — whether the exit was a resignation, dismissal or retrenchment. The certificate covers 1 March to the last day worked.
Do directors get IRP5 certificates?
Yes — directors' remuneration is reported on IRP5s like any employee's (with its own income codes), and the company deducts PAYE on directors' pay through the normal payroll.
An employee lost their IRP5 — must I reissue it?
Provide a duplicate from your payroll records or e@syFile — you kept the certificate data for 5 years anyway. The employee can also retrieve it from their own eFiling profile, since SARS receives the certificate data with your EMP501.
Last reviewed: July 2026 · How we research our guides
EmployerGuide.online provides general information about South African employer obligations — not legal, tax or professional advice for your specific situation. Laws, rates and deadlines change; confirm current requirements with the official sources linked above, or ask Admin Boss. See our disclaimer.