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Free tool · SARS penalties

What non-compliance costs.

Put a Rand figure on SARS tax paid late — the 10% late-payment penalty plus interest at the prescribed rate. Then see the wider stakes across POPIA, B-BBEE, and tax. Computed in your browser; nothing sent or stored.

Late payment

Which tax?
R

The VAT, PAYE, or income tax still unpaid after the due date.

We count from this date to today.

Private by design — your figures are computed on your device and are never sent to us or stored.

Your exposure

Enter an amount and the return's due date, then select Calculate exposure to see the penalty and interest building up.

The stakes

The compliance landscape moved in 2025.

If your last audit was annual, you’re already behind.

SARS stopped printing and posting letters: correspondence now goes to eFiling and other digital channels
31 May2025
SARS notice, 9 Jun 2025
Maximum POPIA administrative penalty per offence
R10M
POPIA s109(2)(c)
The Information Regulator’s fine on the Department of Justice, for failing to comply with an enforcement notice
R5M
Infringement notice, 3 Jul 2023
B-BBEE recognition level of a non-compliant contributor
0%
Statement 000 § 9.2 · GG 42496

How it works

Tax paid late costs more the longer it waits.

01

The penalty lands when payment is late

Tax paid late draws a 10% penalty on the unpaid amount, imposed under section 213 of the Tax Administration Act at the rate the VAT Act and the Income Tax Act set. A late return can draw its own penalties too: a fixed-amount penalty, or for a late EMP501, 1% of the year's PAYE for each month it is outstanding, up to 10%.

02

Interest runs until it is paid

SARS charges interest at the prescribed rate (10.50% a year) on the unpaid amount. For VAT it is charged for each month or part of a month, from the 1st of the month after payment was due, and this calculator does the same, at today's rate for every month (SARS uses the rate in force each month, so an older debt can differ slightly). For PAYE and provisional tax it spreads interest by day, an estimate.

03

SARS is only one regime

POPIA fines reach R10 million; a non-compliant B-BBEE supplier counts 0% toward its customers' procurement scores. The stakes above show how far non-compliance reaches.

This is a planning-grade estimate, not a SARS assessment — it excludes understatement penalties, which depend on SARS audit findings. For what the law requires across each regime, see the compliance guides.