South Africa

Ekwo is free, open source accounting software. Its South Africa pack carries the chart of accounts (South Africa reference chart of accounts, 156 accounts), 2 tax rates in ZAR, the periodic return (Value-Added Tax return (VAT201), 25 boxes), and the financial statements (Statement of financial position — IFRS for SMEs Accounting Standard, Section 4, Statement of comprehensive income — IFRS for SMEs Accounting Standard, Section 5, expenses by nature). Last checked on 2026-10-01 against 21 texts of law and official sources.

Country code: ZA
Currency: ZAR
Pack version: 0.4.0
Last checked: 2026-10-01

Set up Ekwo for South Africa The pack, file by file

What the pack carries

Charts of accountsWhat a company installs, and who each chart is published for.: default (default) — 156 accounts, for companies
TaxesHow many the pack carries, at which distinct rates, and which treatments it can express.: 18 taxes at rates of 0, 15
domestic, exempt, export, foreign_services_received, import, not_subject
Periodic declarationThe form the accounts are read into, the cadences it is filed on, and how many boxes it has.: ZA-VAT201 — 25 boxes, filed month or bimonth
When it is dueA rule of the country, not a date. A pack that cannot state its rule states nothing.: day 25 of the month after the period
The file it is deposited asThe brick of packages/formats that writes it, where one exists.: filed by hand on the administration’s portal
Electronic invoicingThe profile the country imposes, the day it starts, and the text that imposes it.: no profile — no obligation in law
No provision of the Value-Added Tax Act 89 of 1991 obliges a vendor to issue or to accept a structured electronic invoice, and South Africa carries no Peppol authority or network profile at the date of this pack. SARS's Strategic Plan 2025/26–2029/30 and its VAT Modernisation programme describe a multi-year, phased move towards real-time, transaction-level VAT reporting with e-invoicing as a foundational pillar, beginning with voluntary onboarding of the largest Category C vendors; no bill amending the VAT Act to make any of it mandatory had been introduced in Parliament at 25 September 2026. A tax invoice today is a document, on paper or as a PDF, that carries the particulars of section 20(4) or 20(5).
Where the tax balance landsThe accounts a filed declaration settles to, by role.: payable 2110
receivable 1155
Bank statementsThe formats this country’s banks send, and whether anything here reads them.: no format named
Payment filesThe formats the country’s banks accept for an outgoing payment.: no format named
Financial statementsThe schemes the chart reports on, and the taxonomy their keys are written against.: ZA-IFRSSME-SFP — 31 lines
ZA-IFRSSME-PL — 10 lines
Who has read itA pack is reviewed when a named professional has read it against the law, and never before.: community no named reviewer
21 sources cited
Last checked against the lawThe most recent day somebody opened one of the texts the pack was built from.: 2026-10-01
Pack versionWhat this pack calls itself, the day it says its transcription is true, and the languages it publishes.: 0.4.0 — published 2026-10-23
en

Free, and operated

Where the open core stops.

The line is operational, not functional. Everything that keeps working on its own is open core; what needs credentials, a certificate or a channel somebody keeps running is the hosted edition.

ZA-VAT201declaration

Free, for everComputed from the ledger, frozen box by box, filed by hand on the administration’s portal, and what it owes is carried to 2110. The deposit number and the administration’s own words come back into your own database.

OperatedTransmission: the credentials, the certificate and a channel somebody keeps running. The return stays yours.

What it was built from

21 sources — the law this pack was read against

Value-Added Tax Act, 1991 (Act No. 89 of 1991), consolidated text, sections 1, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20, 23, 27 and 28
Acts Online (Van Zyl Rudd & Associates), a consolidation of the Government Gazette text kept current with amendments; South Africa keeps no official online consolidated register of its own statutes, unlike Legilux or Légifrance — see this pack's section of docs/international.md · law · read 2026-09-25
Rates and Monetary Amounts and Amendment of Revenue Laws Bill, 2025 — clause 13, reversal of the VAT rate increase to 15,5 %
National Treasury of the Republic of South Africa · regulation · read 2026-09-25
VAT 404 – Guide for Vendors
South African Revenue Service · guidance · read 2026-09-25
Guide for Completing the Value-Added Tax VAT201 Declaration — External Guide (GEN-ELEC-04-G01, Revision 11, effective 12 May 2025)
South African Revenue Service · form · read 2026-09-25
Tax periods for VAT
South African Revenue Service · guidance · read 2026-09-25
Value-Added Tax
South African Revenue Service · guidance · read 2026-09-25
SARS eFiling
South African Revenue Service · portal · read 2026-09-25
Companies Act 71 of 2008, s. 29 and s. 30 — financial records and annual financial statements
South African Government — Department of Trade, Industry and Competition · law · read 2026-09-25
Companies Regulations, 2011, Regulation 27 and Regulation 28 — financial reporting standards and the public interest score
South African Government — Department of Trade, Industry and Competition · regulation · read 2026-09-25
IFRS for SMEs Accounting Standard — Section 4, Statement of Financial Position, and Section 5, Statement of Comprehensive Income and Income Statement
IFRS Foundation, approved for use in South Africa by the Financial Reporting Standards Council under Companies Regulation 27 · standard · read 2026-09-25
Prescribed Rate of Interest Act 55 of 1975 — the rate of interest on an unpaid debt where none is agreed
South African Government · law · read 2026-09-25
SARS Strategic Plan 2025/26–2029/30 and the VAT Modernisation programme — no obligation to issue a structured electronic invoice at the date of this pack
South African Revenue Service · guidance · read 2026-09-25
UNCL5305 — duty or tax or fee category code
OpenPEPPOL — the list itself is published by UN/CEFACT · standard · read 2026-09-25
Tax rates — Companies, Trusts and Small Business Corporations (SBC): company rate 27 % and the small business corporation tables of the years ending 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 and 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027
South African Revenue Service · guidance · read 2026-10-01
Archive — Tax Rates: company rate of 27 % for years of assessment ending on or after 31 March 2023, and the small business corporation table of the year ending 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024
South African Revenue Service · guidance · read 2026-10-01
Tax Guide for Small Businesses 2025/2026 — paragraphs 3.2.13 (assessed loss, section 20), 3.2.15 (rates), 3.2.18 (small business corporations, section 12E) and 3.2.24 (prohibited deductions, section 23)
South African Revenue Service · guidance · read 2026-10-01
IFRS for SMEs Standard (2015), Section 17 Property, Plant and Equipment — paragraphs 17.18 to 17.22 and 17.27 to 17.30, read in the IFRS Foundation's educational module that carries the full text of the Section
IFRS Foundation, approved for use in South Africa by the Financial Reporting Standards Council under Companies Regulation 27; the edition updated in February 2025 applies to periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027 · standard · read 2026-10-01
IFRS for SMEs Standard (2015), Section 18 Intangible Assets other than Goodwill — paragraphs 18.19 to 18.24, read in the IFRS Foundation's educational module that carries the full text of the Section
IFRS Foundation, approved for use in South Africa by the Financial Reporting Standards Council under Companies Regulation 27 · standard · read 2026-10-01
IFRS for SMEs Standard (2015), Section 19 Business Combinations and Goodwill — paragraph 19.23, read in the IFRS Foundation's educational module that carries the full text of the Section
IFRS Foundation, approved for use in South Africa by the Financial Reporting Standards Council under Companies Regulation 27 · standard · read 2026-10-01
Interpretation Note 47 (Issue 5, 9 February 2021) — section 11(e) of the Income Tax Act 58 of 1962, wear-and-tear or depreciation allowance, with the Annexure of write-off periods acceptable to SARS
South African Revenue Service · guidance · read 2026-10-01
Provisional Tax — the first payment within six months of the start of the year of assessment and the second no later than the last day of the year
South African Revenue Service · guidance · read 2026-10-01

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