Claiming missed input tax in a later VAT return

How far back a South African vendor can claim input tax it missed, why a revised VAT201 cannot add it, and how to claim it in a later period instead.

By Achekam · 11 October 2026 · 5 min read · For Running a business businesses in South Africa

While tidying a filing cabinet, someone finds a stack of supplier tax invoices that were never captured. Some are from last quarter, a few from the year before. Each has VAT on it that the business was entitled to claim and did not. The natural instinct is to go back, correct the old VAT returns, and put the input tax where it belongs.

SARS does not allow that route, but it does not take the VAT away either. There is another way to claim it, with a time limit attached. This article explains which period input tax belongs to, why a revised return cannot increase it, how the later-period claim works, and how to bring the missed bills into your books without disturbing months you have already closed.

Input tax follows the tax invoice

SARS's VAT 404 guide for vendors says input tax may only be deducted in the tax period in which the vendor holds the tax invoice or other prescribed document. The guide quoted is issue 15, up to date as at 17 December 2024.

SARS's guide to completing the VAT201 return makes the same point from the claim side: a valid tax invoice or other prescribed document must be held before input tax on capital or other goods and services is claimed in fields 14 and 15.

So the starting point is not when you bought something, or when you paid for it, but when you had the document in hand. A purchase made in March whose tax invoice only arrives in May cannot be claimed in the March period.

Why a revised return will not take it

The VAT201 guide closes the obvious shortcut. It says a vendor may not increase its input tax deduction when revising a past VAT201 return.

That rule surprises people, because a revision feels like the honest way to fix an error. But for input tax that was left out, the guide sends you elsewhere.

The same sentence in the guide offers the alternative: the vendor may deduct that input tax in a later tax period, provided the deduction is made within five years from the date of first entitlement.

The five-year limit

SARS states the limit in two places, in different words.

• The VAT201 guide says the later-period deduction must be made within five years from the date of first entitlement.
• The VAT 404 guide says input tax must be claimed within five years after the end of the tax period in which the invoice should have been issued, or the claim is forfeited.

Both point to roughly the same horizon, but they start the clock from different points. The safe course is to work from whichever gives you less time, and not to wait anywhere near the end. A claim made late in the window is a claim with little room for queries.

There is a related limit on refunds. SARS says a VAT refund on a return must be claimed within 5 years from the date the return was due, and an erroneous overpayment within 5 years from the date of the overpayment. If adding the missed input tax turns a period into a refund, that limit matters too. How long refunds take is covered in when SARS pays a VAT refund.

SARS's guide to completing the VAT201 return explains how input tax is claimed, what may and may not be changed on a revised return, and the later-period route.

Bringing missed bills into the books without reopening closed months

The missed invoices need to go into your books as well as onto a return. The books should agree with the returns you file, so the bill belongs in the period where you claim it.

In Achekam, months can be soft-closed, hard-closed and locked. A closed month refuses postings from every source, and reopening a hard close needs a second approver. That is deliberate protection: the figures behind a submitted VAT return should not move after the event.

So rather than reopening an old month, record the missed bill in the current open period, which is also where SARS's later-period route puts the input tax. Achekam records supplier bills line by line with VAT. A bill without a purchase order waits for approval before it posts, and it can be paid in full or in parts from a chosen bank account. Note the supplier invoice's original date and number in the bill, so anyone reading the period later understands why an old invoice appears in it.

A quick routine for each batch of missed invoices:

1. Check each one is a valid tax invoice.
2. Confirm it falls within the five-year limit on the stricter reading.
3. Record it as a bill in the current open period, with its original date noted.
4. Claim the input tax in that period's VAT201.
5. Keep a list of what was claimed late and why.

How your VAT201 is built from your books is covered in preparing the VAT201 from your books, and the purchase side for a manufacturer in input VAT on purchases.

Keeping the original invoices

A late claim needs its paper trail as much as any other claim, and arguably more, because the gap between purchase and claim invites questions. Achekam's Document Centre is a folder-based store where a business uploads files or whole folders, previews, downloads, renames, moves, tags, archives and searches them, and a new version keeps the earlier ones. If a supplier later sends a corrected invoice, the new version sits alongside the earlier one rather than replacing it, so you can show what you held and when.

File each late-claimed invoice in the folder for the period you claimed it in, tagged so it can be found as a late claim.

Next time the filing cabinet turns something up

Check the dates, take the later-period route rather than revising, record the bill in an open month, and claim it on the next return. Then look at why the invoice was missed in the first place: a bill recorded when the invoice arrives is a claim that never needs rescuing.

General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.