Perhaps you just tried to submit your tax return and you instantly got an error relating to 3696 and 3699. As frustrating as it could be, don’t worry the error can be fixed. Maybe, you might have just simply left an amount out. Let’s have a look at what you should do, in order to crack these codes correctly – in that way making filing much more easier for you.

You’ll need to check your IRP5 to make sure you answered TaxTim's questions for these amounts correctly. Your IRP5 can show one or more amounts with source codes describing the income you received from your employer that year.

A common example would be:

Salary R240,000 - source code 3601
Medical aid contribution R14,400 - source code 3810
RAF annuity received R24,000 - source code 3610

It’s important to know that these amounts and source codes vary from person to person, from job to job. But on every IRP5 the amounts get added up and summarised in total under two further source codes 3696 and 3699.
So, if an income was earned or benefits received, there MUST be totals included for one or more of 3696 and 3699.

3696 - Non-taxable income
The only income that’s considered non-taxable - which SARS shouldn’t be charging you tax on and no PAYE deducted - is included here. This however doesn’t include your basic salary, in most cases.
Add up the amounts next to the following source codes, if you have them, 3602 (Non-taxable income), 3604 (Pension), 3609 (Arbitration award), 3612 (Purchased annuity), 3703 (Reimbursive travel<8000km), 3705 (Subsistence allowance), 3709 (Uniform allowance), 3714 (Other Allowances), 3716 (Subsistence foreign), 3654, 3659, 3662, 3753, 3755, 3759, 3764, 3766, 3815, 3865, 3821, 3822, 3871 and 3872 and 3908 (Surplus apportionments) for whichever of these have been declared.
If none of these source codes appear on your IRP5, the amount for 3696 must be 0.

3699- Gross Employment Income (Taxable) income
This is the income that’s taxable and includes salary, commission and fringe benefits amongst other sources of employment income that’s used to calculate PAYE.

Important: 
1. The sum of all the amounts under your Income Received column must match the sum of 3696 + 3699.
2. No income can be listed in more than one of either 3696 or 3699.

Steps to take if the IRP5 from your employer is wrong:
If your employer has given you an incorrect IRP5, where the amounts under 3696 and 3699 don’t add up to the amounts - if you total them under all the incomes. You’d need to go back to your employer and request them to correct this. If you don’t see either codes 3696 or 3699 on your IRP5- go back to your employer and find out why not. SARS will not accept IRP5s' that don’t have either or both of these source codes on them.

As per our example above:
3696 would be R0
3699 would be R278,400

Remember: No negative amounts and no cents can be included in 3696, 3699