Tax certificates

A tax certificate is the holder’s own copy of the interest they earned with you in a tax year. It names each of their accounts, the interest credited to each, and the interest still accruing.

The certificate is built from the same interest figures as the third-party interest return you file with the revenue authority. The two cannot disagree.

You work with certificates on the Tax certificates panel of the counterparty screen.

What the certificate shows

The panel itself lists one row per tax year, with the totals, the status, and a Download action once the document is ready.

Interest credited and interest accrued

Credited interest has capitalised into the account, so it became the holder’s income in the tax year. Accrued interest has not capitalised, so it is not yet income.

The certificate reports the two apart, and says so on the face of the document. Only credited interest reaches the return you file.

A holder with two deposit accounts might show 600.00 credited across the year and 44.00 still accruing at year end. The 600.00 is what they declare; the 44.00 is not.

The tax year and its two periods

Where your organisation reports under the South African IT3(b) regime, the tax year runs from 1 March to the last day of February, and is named for the calendar year it ends in. Tax year 2027 therefore runs 1 March 2026 to 28 February 2027. In a leap year the last day is 29 February.

The revenue authority takes two returns a year, and those two periods cover the tax year exactly. The certificate is the sum of the two periods, not a fresh calculation over the whole year. That is why it agrees with what you filed.

The standards register row SARS IT3(b) third-party reporting (BRS v4.0.0D-10) records what the platform claims here, and what it does not.

Issuing a certificate

1. Open the counterparty and select the Tax certificates panel.
2. Select Issue.
3. Choose the Filing entity — the operating entity the holder’s accounts sit under.
4. Check the Tax year. The panel offers the year that has just closed.
5. Select Issue.

Certificates are issued per holder, per filing entity, per tax year. Two operating entities file as two taxpayers, so a holder who banks with both gets a certificate from each.

If the holder has no reportable account with that entity, the request is refused and no certificate is created. An empty certificate would read as “you earned nothing” rather than “you hold nothing with us”.

A holder who held an account for part of the year still has a reportable account for that year, so their certificate issues even after the account has moved on.

Issuing is eligible for countersign, so a second pair of eyes can be required on it.

What happens after you issue

Issuing certifies the figures. The document is then produced and sent without anything further from you.

stateDiagram-v2
    state "Despatch failed" as Failed
    [*] --> Issued: Issue
    Issued --> Rendered: Document produced
    Rendered --> Sent: Emailed to the holder
    Rendered --> Failed: Email rejected
    Sent --> Issued: Issue the year again
    Failed --> Issued: Issue the year again

The certificate is emailed only to a holder who has an email address on file and has opted in to receiving documents by email. Otherwise it stays at Rendered: download it from the panel and send it your own way.

The send is proved, not assumed. The panel shows the address it went to and the date, which is the same proof the platform records for statements.

Re-issuing a corrected year

If the book changes after you issue — a back-dated correction, or a capitalisation that landed late — issue the same tax year again.

The holder keeps one certificate per tax year and one certificate number. The figure is restated, a fresh document replaces the old one, and it is sent again. The superseded figure stays on the audit trail, so you can show what the holder was told and when.

Reprinting a certificate always shows the figures as certified. It is never a fresh calculation from today’s book, so a holder who queries a certificate two years later sees the document you actually issued.

Holders who changed tax residence

A holder can cease residence in one country partway through a tax year. Interest earned before that date and interest earned after it are taxed in different places.

Where residence changed during the year, the certificate carries a second table: each date range, where the holder was resident in it, and the interest credited in that range. Those ranges add up to the certificate total. See tax residency.

Accounts that changed hands during the year

An account can move to a different counterparty partway through a tax year — on a sale, a restructure, a divorce, or a death. Interest earned before the move is the previous holder’s income. Interest earned after it is the new holder’s.

Both parties get a certificate, and both certificates name that account. Each one carries only the interest that holder earned. Nothing is counted twice, and nothing is left off.

The boundary is the day the account moved. Interest that capitalises on that day belongs to the incoming holder, because the account is theirs from that day.

Interest captured after the move belongs to the holder on the day it was captured, even where it is value-dated earlier. A correction entered a week after the move therefore reaches the new holder, not the previous one.

See who is on an account for how an account is moved.

Alex holds one deposit account with Woodgrove Bank, and it moves to Jordan on 1 June 2026.

Alex’s certificate for tax year 2027 totals 400.00. Jordan’s totals 240.00. The two add up to the 640.00 the account earned.

Worked example

Alex holds one deposit account with Woodgrove Bank. Tax year 2027 runs 1 March 2026 to 28 February 2027.

1. Interest of 120.00 capitalises on 31 March 2026, in the first half of the tax year.
2. Interest of 149.50 capitalises on 31 October 2026, in the second half.
3. After the tax year closes, Sam issues Alex’s certificate for 2027. The total credited is 269.50 — the two halves added together.
4. The document is produced and emailed to Alex. The panel shows the address it went to and the date.
5. A back-dated correction adds 30.50 of interest on 31 January 2027. Sam issues 2027 again.
6. The certificate is restated to 300.00. A corrected document replaces the earlier one and is sent to Alex.

Alex’s certificate number does not change across the restatement, so the reference they quote on the phone still finds it.

What your organisation configures

• Which account types are reported. Each account type carries a tax reporting regime. An account type reported under no regime never reaches a certificate.
• The filing entity’s tax details. The tax jurisdiction and tax reference number held against each operating entity print on the certificate.
• The filing profile per reporting entity. The registration and contact details that identify the filer to the revenue authority.
• Whether a holder is emailed. The email address and the email opt-in are properties of the counterparty. A holder who has not opted in is never emailed and their certificate waits at Rendered for you to download.
• Whether the capability is licensed at all. A tenant without tax certificates does not see the panel.

Reporting a new account type, or onboarding an entity that files separately, is configuration rather than a release.