# Regulatory Compliance Category > Tax Forum >  How to make EFT payment to SARS?

## J7J

Hi all,

If as a tax practitioner, I file a VAT return via e-filing and request that the client does an EFT via internet banking,

1) Does the client select "SARS - VAT" (or something of this sort) as the beneficiary for a VAT return payment?
2) Do you just use the return's PRN number as reference to make sure that the payment is allocated correctly? Or is it the PRN number and something else? On the VAT return there is a long reference number next to Payment Reference No. field. Do I use only the number, or do I put PRN in front of it?
3) Anything else that I must tell the client to do when setting up the beneficiary or making the payment for this return?

Thanks!

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## Dave A

This page on SARS payment rules should help.

In brief - search for *SARS* as a listed company beneficiary - this should produce a list that looks like this:



Add the relevant beneficiary to your list of beneficiaries.

When it comes to the payment reference number (or PRN) the structure has three parts:
First 10 digits - taxpayer registration number
11th character - tax type indicator (V in the case of VAT)
last 8 digits - the period in the format 00mmyyyy

So assuming a VAT registration number of 1234567890 as example, the reference for a payment for the August 2013 period would be as follows:

1234567890V00082013

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J7J (28-Sep-13)

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## HR Solutions

Or just pay when you complete it via e filing by activating the account and your client can release payment.

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## Dave A

> Or just pay when you complete it via e filing by activating the account and your client can release payment.


The problem with the credit push method at the moment is it doesn't work for all online banking products, and with some of the ones it does work for, the payment has to be released on the same day it's activated via eFiling.

All said, I suspect EFT might well prove the method less likely to go wrong right now where you've got one party capturing the return on eFiling and another party involved in making the payment.

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J7J (28-Sep-13)

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## J7J

Thank you very much!  I appreciate your advice.

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## tec0

I never got e filing to work...  And if I consider the amount of people standing in the queue yea I would say e filing is a failure... But a word of advice those SMS’s you get demanding money... Don’t pay those people rather go and talk to them in person.

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