SARS has confirmed that Trust Filing Season 2026 opens on 19 September 2026 and closes on 22 January 2027, with the IT3(t) third-party data return due on 30 September 2026. That leaves non-provisional individual beneficiaries roughly three weeks between the moment SARS receives beneficiary-level vesting data and the 23 October 2026 individual deadline.
I’m Chris Herbst, Managing Director at CH Consulting. I hold the CBAP(SA) designation as a Practising Member of the Southern African Institute of Business Accountants and the GTP(SA) designation as a Practising Member of the South African Institute of Tax Professionals. Our practice reconciles trust distribution schedules against individual ITR12 returns for beneficiaries of South African family trusts every season, and we deal with the verification letters that follow when the two do not agree.
What is the IT3(t) and why does it now affect my ITR12?
The IT3(t) is a third-party data return filed by a trust about its beneficiaries, reporting amounts vested in each of them, and SARS uses that data to test what beneficiaries declare on their own ITR12 returns. It is not a return you file, and it is not a tax return at all in the ordinary sense.
The legal basis is section 26 of the Tax Administration Act 28 of 2011, which lets the Commissioner require by public notice that a person who transacts with another person, or has control over assets of another person, submit a return about them. Public Notice 3631, published in Government Gazette No. 48867 on 30 June 2023, added trusts to the list of third parties already made up of banks, insurers, medical schemes and fund administrators. Clause 4.2 of that notice was later amended by Notice No. 4051, Government Gazette No. 49646, dated 10 November 2023.
What exactly does the trust report about me?
Paragraph 2.15 of the Schedule to Notice 3631 describes the reportable information as any amount vested in a beneficiary, broken into income net of expenditure, capital gains and capital amounts. SARS separately describes the IT3(t) as covering demographic information of the trust and its beneficiaries, taxable amounts distributed or vested, details of non-taxable income distributed and trust financial flows.
Is there an IT3(t) certificate I will receive?
No. Unlike an IRP5 or an IT3(b), the IT3(t) is a data file lodged through the third-party data channel, and there is no automatic beneficiary-facing document. You are dependent on the trustee telling you what was reported against your ID number. This is a different problem from the one crypto users face, where no certificate is issued at all; here a certificate exists, but it is pointed at SARS rather than at you.
Why does the IT3(t) deadline of 30 September 2026 create a problem for individual beneficiaries?
The sequencing is the problem: individual returns opened on 13 July 2026 and close for non-provisional taxpayers on 23 October 2026, the IT3(t) is due on 30 September 2026, and the trust’s own ITR12T is only due on 22 January 2027. The beneficiary is asked to declare first and reconcile later.
SARS’s Filing Season 2026 dates ran auto-assessment from 1 to 12 July 2026, non-provisional individuals from 13 July to 23 October 2026, provisional taxpayers to 22 January 2027 and trusts from 19 September 2026. Those dates sit in Notice No. 7422, Government Gazette No. 54598 of 30 April 2026, covering the year of assessment from 1 March 2025 to 28 February 2026. We set the full calendar out in our guide to the SARS Filing Season 2026 deadlines.
What if I already filed in July or August?
You are in the worse position, because the trust data arrived after your return. Log back into eFiling, open the trust container on your ITR12, and check whether anything has appeared that you did not capture. If it has, a Request for Correction before 23 October is far cheaper than a dispute afterwards.
Does the IT3(t) pre-populate my ITR12 or only the trust’s ITR12T?
This is genuinely unsettled. Commentary on the 2026 season confirms that IT3(t) data will pre-populate income, vested amounts and certain expense information on the ITR12T, with beneficiary schedules pre-populated from IT3(t). Whether the same data pre-populates the individual’s ITR12 for 2026 is not something we could verify against a SARS page. SARS’s original stated intention, going back to the announcement of the regime, was to pre-populate the entire beneficiary section over time. Treat it as unverified and check your own return rather than assuming either way.
Where does trust vesting go on the ITR12, and what is the IT3(t) being compared against?
Trust amounts belong in the dedicated Trust Income container on the ITR12, not in the ordinary income or capital gains fields, and this has been the position from the 2017 year of assessment onwards. The container is headed “Trust Income, Income distributed to you / vested in you as a beneficiary of a Trust or deemed to have accrued in terms of s7”.
SARS’s ITR12 guide records that the gateway question now reads “Mark with an ‘X’ if you received or became entitled to any income as a beneficiary of a Trust, or income deemed to be yours under s7”, that you then state the number of trusts, and that the section repeats to a maximum of 20 containers, with anything beyond 20 consolidated into the twentieth. For the 2024 year of assessment and prior, the question was worded differently. SARS’s comprehensive ITR12 guide confirms trust amounts must be excluded from the general income fields.
Where do trust capital gains go?
Not in the main CGT field. The general capital gains line on the ITR12 is expressly labelled to exclude amounts received or accrued as a beneficiary of a trust, or deemed to have accrued under section 7, per the form layout published by National Treasury. That layout is the 2017 version, so the exact 2026 field labels should be confirmed against the current SARS guide. If you also hold assets outside the trust, our note on capital gains tax for property owners deals with the ordinary CGT field.
What is the law that puts the amount in my hands rather than the trust’s?
Two provisions do the work. Section 25B of the Income Tax Act 58 of 1962 taxes income vested in a beneficiary in that beneficiary, with section 25B(2A) dealing with a resident who acquires a vested right to capital of a non-resident trust. Paragraph 80 of the Eighth Schedule attributes trust capital gains to beneficiaries, distinguishing paragraph 80(1), where an asset vests, from paragraph 80(2), where the beneficiary has a vested interest in the gain but not the asset.
What are the key IT3(t) and ITR12 dates side by side?
The table below sets out the four dates that matter to a beneficiary this season and the status of each obligation.
- 23 October 2026: What happens: Non-provisional ITR12 closes; Status for you: Hard deadline
- 30 September 2026: What happens: Trust IT3(t) due; Status for you: Trustee obligation
- 22 January 2027: What happens: ITR12T and provisional ITR12 close; Status for you: Later window
- 19 September 2026: What happens: Trust filing season opens; Status for you: ITR12 pre-population unclear
If you are a provisional taxpayer, the January date buys you time that non-provisional beneficiaries do not have. Our piece on who needs to file provisional tax sets out when trust distributions push you into that category.
What do I do when the trust’s IT3(t) figure differs from what I declared?
Work from the trustee resolution and the trust’s financial statements, not from your bank statement, then correct whichever record is wrong. In most mismatches we see, the beneficiary declared cash received and the trust reported what vested, and those are two different numbers in two different years.
Step 1: Get the reported figure in writing
Ask the trustee or the trust’s accountant for the beneficiary schedule that was submitted, per beneficiary, split between income, capital gains and capital amounts. That split matters because each line lands in a different place on your ITR12.
Step 2: Match the trust registration number
The ITR12 trust container requires a Trust Registration Number. Confirm whether the trust reported its SARS income tax reference or the Master’s reference, and use the same one. SAICA’s guidance on the regime records that in some cases the trust registration number has changed, which breaks the match silently.
Step 3: Reconcile vesting date to your year of assessment
Check the date on the resolution. A resolution signed in late February that pays out in June creates a vesting in the earlier year of assessment, with no cash in your account that year.
Step 4: File a Request for Correction on eFiling
Open the assessed ITR12 on eFiling, select Request for Correction, amend the Trust Income container, and submit. If you are unfamiliar with the screens, our step-by-step eFiling guide walks through the navigation.
Step 5: Assemble the supporting pack before SARS asks
Keep the resolution, the beneficiary schedule, the loan account extract and the trust’s financial statements together in one folder. A verification letter gives you a short window, and scrambling for trustee signatures inside it rarely goes well. See our guide to SARS verification of supporting documents.
Step 6: If you disagree with an auto-assessment that now carries trust data
Do not accept it by silence. The process for amending or disputing is set out in our article on how to dispute a SARS auto-assessment in 2026.
What if the trust files the IT3(t) late, or never files it at all?
Your obligation to declare what vested in you does not depend on the trust filing anything, so you declare the correct amount and document why. The absence of an IT3(t) does not create an absence of tax.
Late filing is common. For the 2025 cycle, the submission channel remained open after the 30 September 2025 deadline so trustees could file belatedly. SARS’s own FAQ on 2024 filing problems stated that no admin penalties would be levied for late submission of the IT3(t) for that year, while asking trusts to file anyway.
Is the IT3(t) itself penalised in 2026?
Unverified. What did land is a public notice issued on 27 March 2026 listing non-submission of income tax returns by Trusts as an incidence of non-compliance under section 211 of the Tax Administration Act, with AP34 penalty assessment notices issued from 4 May 2026 for outstanding ITR12T returns from 2024 onwards. Whether the IT3(t) is itself now a listed incidence is not something we could confirm. The practical consequence cuts against beneficiaries: a trustee facing monthly penalties of R250 to R16 000 running up to 35 months on the ITR12T will rationally prioritise that return over a data file that may carry no penalty.
What if the trust is dormant and nothing vested?
SARS has told Moonstone that a trust within the filing requirement must still submit an IT3(t) even with no reportable financial information. SAICA’s guidance notes the same outcome, effectively a nil return. The gazette wording, by contrast, is triggered by “any amount vested in a beneficiary”, which on a literal reading is not engaged where nothing vested. Trustees are acting on both readings, so this remains unsettled.
How do I document the vesting right before SARS raises a mismatch?
Build a contemporaneous file made up of the dated trustee resolution, the beneficiary’s loan account entry in the trust’s books, the trust’s annual financial statements and the trust deed clause that permits the vesting. Assemble it now, while the trustees are in filing mode, not when the verification letter arrives.
Is the resolution or the loan account the operative evidence?
We found no SARS Interpretation Note or Binding General Ruling that resolves the evidentiary standard for fixing a vesting date, and we could not confirm a nil result either. Practice divides between treating the dated trustee resolution as determinative and treating the credit to the beneficiary’s loan account in the trust’s books as the operative evidence. Where the two agree, you have a strong file; where they conflict, expect questions.
Why does the resolution date matter so much?
Because the law taxes vesting, and SARS’s own trust guide states that vesting of a benefit in a beneficiary is an indispensable prerequisite for the distribution to occur. If SARS treats a resolution as prepared after the fact, the year of taxation moves, and your declaration sits in the wrong year.
What about capital distributions that are not taxable?
The IT3(t) captures capital amounts and details of non-taxable income distributed. A distribution of trust capital that has already borne tax is not taxable in your hands, but it is now visible to SARS as a Rand amount attached to your ID number. The ITR12 has historically carried an “Amount Considered Non-Taxable” column in the trust container, but whether the 2026 container reconciles field for field with the IT3(t) non-taxable categories is unverified. Where it does not, the lifestyle audit risk is structural, and that is one of the red flags that trigger SARS audits.
What does SARS already hold, and how does an IT3(t) mismatch surface?
SARS holds beneficiary-level vesting data reported against your ID number by the trust, sitting alongside IT3(b) interest data from your bank, IT3(d) donations data and medical scheme data in the same third-party pipeline. A mismatch surfaces either as a figure appearing on your return that you never captured, or as a verification letter after assessment.
SARS’s Third-Party Data page lists trusts alongside banks, financial institutions, insurance companies, medical schemes, fund administrators, attorneys and estate agents, with returns including IT3(b), IT3(f), IT3(d) and IT3(t). SARS’s stated rationale for adding trusts was that distributions were not previously third-party reported, that there was often a delay of years between individuals filing and SARS receiving trust data via the ITR12T, and that SARS therefore had no independent data to verify beneficiaries. The broader picture of what SARS receives is covered in our article on how SARS gets access to financial information.
Does the trust’s own return expose the gap?
Yes. The ITR12T contains a direct question, “Did the Trust submit an IT3(t) return?”, answered Y or N, and requires the trust to specify the number of beneficiaries taxable on income or capital gains distributed or vested, or taxable under section 7 or paragraphs 68 to 72 of the Eighth Schedule. A trust that answers “N” while claiming the deduction line “Less: Amount distributed to / vested in beneficiaries or taxable i.t.o. s7 (excluding amounts vested in foreign beneficiaries)” has declared its own gap. That deduction line appears on the ITR12T form, which also provides that capital or income distributed as an annuity is declared under source code 3611.
What are the most common IT3(t) trust vesting mistakes on an ITR12?
The recurring errors are declaring cash rather than vesting, putting trust amounts in the wrong fields, and quoting the wrong trust reference number. Each one produces a mismatch that looks, from SARS’s side, identical to under-declaration.
Declaring what you received instead of what vested
The IT3(t) reports amounts vested, not amounts paid. If the trustees resolved in February and paid in June, your bank statement and the IT3(t) will never agree.
Putting trust income in the ordinary income fields
From the 2017 year of assessment onwards, trust amounts must be excluded from the general income fields and declared in the Trust section. Rental income vested by a trust does not belong under source code 4210 on your own schedule, and trust capital gains do not belong in the main CGT field.
Assuming duplicates in the trust’s file are harmless
SARS’s FAQ notes that submission response status “04, Accepted with warnings” can include duplicate records. If a trust resubmits after correcting a file, SARS may hold the amount twice, and the apparent shortfall on your side is exactly the size of your distribution.
Ignoring the multi-tier problem
Where a capital gain has passed through more than one discretionary trust, SARS’s published position in the Comprehensive Guide to Capital Gains Tax is that a gain can be attributed only once and cannot flow through multiple resident discretionary trusts, at paragraphs 14.11.6.3 and 14.11.6.3A. The Constitutional Court ruled for SARS on the conduit principle in The Thistle Trust v C:SARS, CCT 337/22, [2024] ZACC 19. Nothing stops a second-tier trust from reporting the gain as vested in you anyway, which leaves you choosing between declaring a gain that may not be yours and carrying an unexplained mismatch. Worth noting: in Thistle, SARS’s cross-appeal on the understatement penalty was dismissed because the taxpayer’s position was taken on legal advice and was reasonable.
Overlooking non-resident status
Since the Taxation Laws Amendment Act 17 of 2023 amendments to section 25B, applying to the 2025 and subsequent years of assessment and commencing 1 March 2024, section 25B(2) excludes non-resident beneficiaries, so income vested in them stays taxable in the trust absent section 7 attribution. The IT3(t) gazette wording has no residence filter, so an IT3(t) can assert a vested amount against someone whose South African position correctly shows no inclusion. If you have emigrated, read our note on tax residency in South Africa.
Why might the trust not have filed the IT3(t) on time?
The mechanics are more demanding than most trustees expect, and the file can only be produced once the trust’s financial statements are final. That single constraint explains most of the late filings we see.
The two-return structure
Submission is two steps: the IT3-01 data submission and the IT3-02 declaration confirming the submitted summary is correct. SARS’s guide confirms that every file submitted via Connect:Direct or HTTPS must be separately declared using the corresponding “-02” return. Trustees routinely complete the first and miss the second.
The certificate volume rule
SARS’s eFiling guide states that eFiling may be used where there are 20 or fewer IT3 certificates, but that for Trusts up to 50 certificates can be submitted, with Connect:Direct for bulk and HTTPS for medium volume. A trust above the threshold has to move channel, and the Third Party Data menu only appears once the organisation is enrolled and activated for the IT3 tax type.
Confusion over the due date in the gazette
SAIT’s material quotes the original gazette clause as requiring submission by 31 May each year for the period 1 March to end February, yet SARS has published and operated a 30 September deadline for 2025. The obvious inference is that the amendment by Notice 4051 moved trusts off the 31 May cycle, but we could not read the amending text, so the reconciliation is unverified. A trustee working off 31 May either files early on unfinalised figures or does not file at all.
Do You Need Help With Your IT3(t) Trust Vesting on Your ITR12?
If you are a beneficiary and the trust’s numbers do not agree with yours, or the trustee cannot tell you what was reported, we can reconcile the position and prepare the supporting file before 23 October. Book a call to talk through your own circumstances, or email info@chconsulting.co.za with your questions and the trust’s beneficiary schedule if you have it.
