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The Bloemfontein Business Compliance Calendar: Every Deadline That Can Cost You a Contract
The expensive part of missing a deadline usually isn’t the penalty.
It’s the Monday morning your foreman can’t get onto a site in Bainsvlei because your COIDA letter of good standing lapsed. Or the provincial tender you spent three weeks preparing, disqualified because your tax compliance status flipped to non-compliant over an EMP201 you paid nine days late.
The penalties are annoying. Losing the work is what actually hurts.
This is the full year of filing obligations for a Bloemfontein business, arranged the way you’ll meet them rather than the way the legislation is written. Save it, print it, or copy the dates into your calendar. Every deadline below applies to a business with employees, so ignore the ones that don’t apply to you.
Every month
EMP201 by the 7th. PAYE, UIF and SDL for the previous month. If the 7th falls on a weekend or a public holiday, the payment moves forward to the last business day before it, not after. That trips people up in months like March, when the deadline can land on the 6th.
SDL only applies if your total annual payroll exceeds R500,000. UIF is 1% from the employee and 1% from you, up to the monthly earnings ceiling.
UIF declarations. Employee details declared monthly, either through uFiling or with your EMP201 through your payroll system.
Dividends tax return. If your company paid a dividend, the DTR01 and DTR02 are due by the end of the following month. Easy one to forget, because it only comes up in the months you distribute.
Every second month, for most VAT vendors
VAT201 for Category A and B vendors. If you file on eFiling, the return and the payment are due by the last business day of the month following the end of your tax period. If you file manually, you have until the 25th. Category C vendors, generally those turning over more than R30 million, file monthly. Farming enterprises on Category D file every six months.
One thing worth checking after the 2026 threshold changes: if your taxable supplies are now under R2.3 million, you’re no longer compulsorily registered. That doesn’t mean you should deregister, but it does mean the decision is yours again.
Twice a year
IRP6 first provisional tax by 31 August. Half your estimated tax for the year, based on your best estimate of taxable income for the full year.
IRP6 second provisional tax by the last day of February. This is the one that bites. Your second estimate has to be at least 80% of your final taxable income, or SARS adds a 20% underestimation penalty on the shortfall. For businesses with lumpy income, that’s a genuinely difficult forecast.
Free State farming clients feel this more than most. A large portion of the year’s income lands in the same few weeks the estimate is due, which means the February number is often a guess made while the crop is still being sold. Build in a margin, or use the voluntary top-up.
Voluntary third payment by 30 September for anyone with a February year end. This is the safety valve. Pay in the shortfall within six months of year end and you avoid interest on the underpayment.
EMP501 reconciliations, twice. The interim reconciliation covers March to August and runs in September and October. The annual reconciliation covers the full March to February year and opens on 1 April, closing at the end of May. IRP5 certificates have to reach your employees within 60 days of year end.
There’s a hard stop on the annual one now. From the February 2026 reconciliation period onward, every employee who’s required to be registered for tax must have a valid income tax reference number on their IRP5. eFiling and e@syFile reject the whole submission if even one is missing. No warning, no grace period. Register employees through ITREG or BundleReg well before you sit down to file.
Once a year
Annual income tax return. Companies file an ITR14 within twelve months of financial year end. Individuals file an ITR12 during filing season, which typically opens in July, with a later deadline for provisional taxpayers. The exact dates only become official when the Commissioner publishes the annual notice, so check them each year rather than assuming last year’s dates hold.
CIPC annual return. Due within 30 business days of the anniversary of your incorporation date. Not your financial year end, not a fixed national date. Your own anniversary. Close corporations work slightly differently, with the anniversary month plus the month after.
Two things have to be in place before CIPC accepts the filing. Your beneficial ownership declaration must be current, because the system blocks the annual return without it. And you’ll need either annual financial statements or a Financial Accountability Supplement, depending on your size and public interest score.
Skip it long enough and CIPC starts deregistration. A deregistered company can’t hold a bank account, can’t contract, and can’t bid for anything.
COIDA Return of Earnings between 1 April and 30 June. Actual earnings for the year just ended, plus your estimate for the year ahead. Late submission adds 10% to your assessment and keeps your letter of good standing invalid until you’ve submitted and paid.
Working directors who draw a salary count as employees for COIDA. Plenty of two-person Bloemfontein companies assume they’re exempt and find out otherwise when a main contractor asks for the letter.
Workplace Skills Plan and Annual Training Report by 30 April. If you pay SDL, this goes to your SETA. It’s also how you claim back the mandatory grant, so it’s one of the few compliance tasks that can put money back in your account.
National minimum wage check on 2 March. The rate went to R30.23 an hour from 2 March 2026 and it moves most years. Here’s the part employers underestimate: if a single employee is paid below the minimum wage in a month, your entire Employment Tax Incentive claim for that month is disqualified. Not just that employee’s portion. All of it.
The four documents that decide whether you can bid
A large share of Bloemfontein’s business economy sells to the provincial departments, Mangaung Metro, the universities and the hospitals. If that’s you, four documents control your access to that work, and each one depends on the calendar above.
| Document | What keeps it valid | What breaks it |
|---|---|---|
| Tax Compliance Status PIN | Every return submitted, every payment made or arranged | One outstanding EMP201, VAT201 or IRP6 |
| Central Supplier Database registration | Live CIPC and SARS records that match | A lapsed CIPC annual return or a changed banking detail |
| COIDA letter of good standing | Annual ROE submitted and assessment paid | Missing the 30 June deadline |
| B-BBEE affidavit or certificate | Annual renewal, turnover-dependent | Simply letting it expire |
Your tax compliance status is checked live by the buyer. It’s not a certificate you file away, it’s a real-time view of your account. Which is why a small unpaid balance from four months ago can cost you a contract you’d already effectively won.
What late actually costs
| Slip-up | Cost |
|---|---|
| Late PAYE or VAT payment | 10% penalty, plus interest at 10.25% a year |
| Second provisional estimate below 80% of final taxable income | 20% underestimation penalty on the shortfall |
| Outstanding income tax returns | Monthly administrative penalties that keep running until you file |
| Late CIPC annual return | Escalating penalties, then deregistration |
| Late COIDA ROE | 10% added to the assessment, invalid letter of good standing |
| Any employee paid below minimum wage | Full ETI claim for that month disqualified |
SARS also doesn’t need a court order to collect. Under section 179 of the Tax Administration Act it can instruct your bank to pay a tax debt directly from your account. In practice that follows a letter of final demand, so it rarely arrives without warning, but it does arrive.
A routine that keeps all of it on the rails
Most businesses that fall behind didn’t decide to. They just never built a rhythm.
First business day of every month: run payroll, prepare the EMP201, check the 7th isn’t a weekend, pay.
Last week of every month: VAT201 if you’re in a filing month, and reconcile your bank before the numbers go cold.
Diarise five fixed dates now: 28 or 29 February, 30 April, 30 June, 31 August, 30 September. Between them they cover provisional tax, your SETA submission, COIDA, and your voluntary top-up.
Diarise one moving date: your CIPC anniversary. Set the reminder 45 days ahead, because you’ll need the beneficial ownership declaration sorted before you can file.
Twice a year, pull your tax compliance status. Don’t wait for a tender document to tell you it’s non-compliant.
If you’d rather not carry any of it yourself, the SARS Bloemfontein branch works by appointment through the eBooking system, though almost everything on this list is now filed electronically anyway.
Start with the two you can check this week: log into eFiling and look at your compliance status, then look up your incorporation date and count 30 business days forward. If either one surprises you, you’ve found your first job.
Deadlines and figures reflect the 2026/27 tax year and were checked in August 2026. Filing season dates, wage rates and interest rates change annually. This is general information, not advice on your circumstances.