Global Daily Tax News, South Africa To Launch Trusts Filing Season, (Sep 8, 2026)

The South African Revenue Service has announced that the filing season for Trusts will begin on September 19, 2026.

The deadline for filing the Income Tax Return for Trusts (ITR12T) is January 22, 2027, for both provisional and non-provisional trust taxpayers.

The agency said the ITR12T Trust income tax return has been amended to make it easier to comply with trust obligations and avoid administrative penalties for late or non-submission, including:

• Income, vested amounts and certain expense information, as well as beneficiary schedules, will be pre-populated with IT3(t) data;

• Beneficial ownership founder questions will now cater for cases where the founder is a legal entity that no longer exists or a deceased natural person; and

• Taxpayers must now provide tax practitioner contact details.

IT3(t) third-party data returns are due September 30, 2026, for the 2026 year of assessment. The IT3(t) third-party data return must be submitted by the representative taxpayers of Trusts, including details of amounts vested in beneficiaries for a specific year of assessment.