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IRP5 Travel Codes Explained: 3701, 3702, 3703 and 3722

Four codes, one vehicle, and a lot of confusion. Which one appears on your IRP5 depends on how your employer pays you for travel, and it changes what you can claim. Here is the whole map.

First, the split that explains everything

There are only two ways an employer pays you for using your own car:

• A fixed travel allowance — a set amount every month, regardless of how far you actually drove. Code 3701.
• A reimbursement — a rand-per-kilometre payment for business kilometres you actually travelled. Codes 3702, 3703 and 3722, depending on the rate and your circumstances.

Every question about these codes comes down to which of those two you are being paid, and — for reimbursements — whether the rate is above or below the rate SARS prescribes.

The prescribed rate per kilometre

SARS fixes a rate each year that is treated as a fair reimbursement of actual running costs. Reimburse at or below it and nothing is taxed; reimburse above it and the excess is treated as remuneration.

For the tax year that ran to 28 February 2026, the rate was R4.76 per kilometre. From 1 March 2026 it rose to R4.95 per kilometre. Always check the current figure — it is republished by government notice every year.

3701 — fixed travel allowance

The full annual allowance appears here. 80% of it is subject to PAYE during the year (or 20%, if your employer is satisfied at least 80% of your vehicle use is business).

At assessment the whole amount is included in your income and you deduct your calculated travel costs against it — but only if you kept a logbook. This is the code where a logbook is worth the most money, and where its absence costs the most. We cover the mechanics in how the travel allowance claim works.

3703 — reimbursement, not taxed, not assessed

This is the simple, clean case. Code 3703 applies when:

• your employer reimburses you at or below the prescribed rate, and
• you receive no other travel compensation — no fixed allowance, no company car.

The amount is not remuneration, no PAYE is deducted, and SARS does not assess it. Nothing flows into your return and there is nothing to claim against it.

You still need a logbook, though — your employer needs the kilometres to justify the payment, and the reimbursement is only tax-free because it relates to real business travel.

3702 — reimbursement that is assessed

Same portion of the payment as 3703 — the part at or below the prescribed rate — but reported under 3702 when the clean-case conditions are not met, typically because you also receive a fixed travel allowance.

It is not treated as remuneration for PAYE, so nothing extra is withheld monthly, but it is income in your hands and is assessed when you file. If you have both a 3701 and a 3702 on your IRP5, your logbook is doing double duty and the numbers need to be consistent.

3722 — the excess above the prescribed rate

If your employer reimburses you at more than the prescribed rate, the payment splits. The portion up to the prescribed rate goes to 3702 or 3703; the portion above it goes to 3722, is treated as remuneration, and has PAYE deducted.

A common example: an employer paying R6.00/km in a year when the prescribed rate is R4.95. Roughly R4.95 of each kilometre is handled under the reimbursement codes, and the remaining ~R1.05 is taxed as salary.

The 8,000 km limit is gone

You will still find advice online about a cap of 8,000 business kilometres on tax-free reimbursements. That limit applied to years of assessment before 2018, rose to 12,000 km for the 2018 year, and fell away entirely from the 2019 year of assessment.

There is now no kilometre ceiling on reimbursive travel. What matters is the rate, not the distance. If you are reading guidance that still cites 8,000 km, it is out of date — and worth being suspicious of on other points too.

Quick reference

• 3701 — fixed allowance. 80% (or 20%) taxed via PAYE. Deduct against it with a logbook.
• 3702 — reimbursement up to the prescribed rate, where you also get other travel pay. Assessed.
• 3703 — reimbursement up to the prescribed rate, nothing else received. Not taxed, not assessed.
• 3722 — the slice above the prescribed rate. Remuneration, PAYE applies.

What they have in common

All four rest on business kilometres you can actually evidence. The code determines how the money is treated; the logbook determines whether the treatment survives a verification.

If yours is a 3701, the logbook is the difference between a deduction and no deduction at all. LogBoek builds one from two odometer readings and your business trips — full daily chain, reconciled to your closing reading, exported as a SARS-ready PDF.

Try LogBoek free →

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