In September / October last year, all IRP5’s that were sent to SARS without an Employee Tax Reference Number (TRN) were meant to “automatically” be registered and the appropriate number issued back to Employers via e-Filing / e@syFile in time for this filing season. There were instances where TRN’s would not be issued (i.e. where the employee was already registered and / or the data supplied was incorrect / different to what SARS have on their files), so these specific employees who did not get a TRN issued by SARS, would have to go to their local SARS office to get their information in order and confirmed.
Employers were however, for the majority of unregistered employees, expecting these numbers to be issued during the course of April / May. In a number of instances this download function has not worked properly (i.e. only downloading half the file, unable to connect to SARS, etc). SARS are aware of these issues and are addressing them. We should have some official feedback from SARS shortly and will advise you on the steps to take to get the TRN’s downloaded.
In fact, our understanding is that SARS will issue some form of notice to all employers about this issue (and the issue of associated penalties!) in the next few days.