VAT categories A to E: which period do you file?
How SARS decides whether a South African vendor files VAT monthly, two-monthly, six-monthly or yearly, and how to ask SARS to change your category.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Running a business businesses in South Africa
Two VAT vendors on the same street can have completely different filing calendars. One sends a VAT return to SARS every month. Another files every second month, but in different months from its neighbour. A farm down the road files twice a year, and a property company files once.
The difference is the vendor's tax period category, a letter from A to E that SARS assigns. It decides how often you file, which months your periods end in, and so how your bookkeeping calendar has to run. This article explains each category, who falls into it, how to ask SARS to change yours, and how to keep your books in step with it.
Categories A and B: every two months
Two-monthly filing comes in two versions, which differ only in the months the periods end:
- Category A vendors file for periods ending in January, March, May, July, September and November.
- Category B vendors file for periods ending in February, April, June, August, October and December.
SARS's page notes that the Commissioner decides which of these two categories a vendor falls in. You do not choose between A and B; you are told.
The practical difference is the month-end that matters. A Category B vendor's VAT period lines up with a February year end, so its last VAT period of the financial year ends on the same day as the year. A Category A vendor's periods straddle the year end, which needs a little more care when the year's figures are reconciled to the VAT returns.
Category C: monthly returns
Some vendors file every month. SARS says a vendor falls into Category C if:
- its taxable supplies have exceeded, or are likely to exceed, R30 million in any consecutive 12 months;
- it applies in writing to be placed in Category C; or
- it repeatedly fails to meet its VAT obligations.
The first is about size. The second is a choice, which some vendors make because monthly returns suit their cash flow or their refund position. The third is a consequence: a vendor that keeps filing or paying late can find itself moved to monthly returns, which means more frequent deadlines, not fewer.
Category D: twice a year for small farmers and micro businesses
SARS says Category D, with six-monthly returns for periods ending in February and August, applies mainly to:
- farmers with taxable supplies of less than R1.5 million over 12 months; and
- micro businesses registered in terms of the Sixth Schedule to the Income Tax Act.
The second group matters to micro businesses on turnover tax that choose to stay registered for VAT. How that choice works is covered in staying VAT-registered on turnover tax.
Category E: once a year for certain companies and trusts
SARS says Category E, with twelve-monthly returns, applies to a company or trust whose activities are letting fixed property, renting movable goods, or administering or managing companies that are connected persons to it.
This is the category for property-letting and group-administration entities: a company that owns and lets a building, or a trust that manages related companies. One return a year sounds light, but the year's records still have to be kept as carefully as anyone else's.
| Category | Returns | Periods end in | Who, in SARS's words |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Every two months | Odd months | As the Commissioner decides |
| B | Every two months | Even months | As the Commissioner decides |
| C | Monthly | Every month | Supplies above R30 million, on application, or repeated failures |
| D | Six-monthly | February and August | Mainly small farmers and micro businesses |
| E | Twelve-monthly | Once a year | Companies or trusts letting property, renting goods or administering connected companies |
SARS's page was last updated on 31 January 2025. Its tax periods for VAT page lists each category and the vendors it applies to, and is the place to confirm the figures at the time you need them.
Asking SARS to change your category
If your circumstances change, for example your turnover passes the Category C level, or you want monthly returns, the category has to change on SARS's side. SARS says a request to change a vendor's VAT tax period category must be made at a SARS branch, through an eBooking appointment.
Book the appointment as soon as you know a change is needed, and take evidence of the reason: turnover figures for a size-based change, or your written application for a voluntary one.
Closing each VAT period in your books
Whatever your category, the VAT period should match a closed period in your books, so the figures you declare cannot drift afterwards.
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. Before closing, the screen checks that the ledger balances and that no posting suggestions, unposted bills or unmatched bank lines are waiting. Close the months that make up each VAT period before you prepare the return.
Achekam does not prepare, store or submit a South African VAT201 return, and nothing is submitted to SARS eFiling, so the return itself is prepared and filed by you or your accountant. Which figures you can take from the books is covered in preparing your VAT201 when your books are in Achekam.
Nor can Achekam be your filing diary. The obligations list on the Tax Dashboard shows sample data, and obligations added there are not saved. Keep your category's period-end months and return dates in a calendar outside Achekam. When each return falls due is covered in when a VAT201 return and payment are due.
Know your letter
Check your category on SARS's records and write your period-end months on the wall planner. If the business's size or activity has changed, ask whether your category should change too. Then build the month-end close around those periods, so every VAT return starts from closed, settled figures.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
