What happens if I do not comply with SAICA CPD?

What counts as non compliance

Non compliance means not meeting the responsibilities set out in paragraph 5 of SAICA's CPD Policy. Professionally active Members and Associates must plan and review an annual reflective learning plan, undertake relevant CPD activities every year, undertake any CPD SAICA makes compulsory, submit an annual declaration, and submit the document required if selected for SAICA's monitoring process. Falling short on any one of these is enough to put you out of compliance. In practice that usually means one or more of the following.

• No annual declaration submitted to SAICA.
• No reflective learning plan kept.
• Not submitting the plan when selected for monitoring.
• Skipping compulsory CPD, such as the annual ethics reflection.

The same responsibilities apply whether your CPD year was straightforward or unusual. A Member or Associate on a declared career break still has to record reduced activities on a reflective plan, and one who is not professionally active and under 70 still has to meet the policy in full, so the range of people who can end up non compliant is wider than it first appears.

What happens next

SAICA's current By-laws and 2026 Rehabilitation Programme material describe what may happen once a Member or Associate has not complied.

1. For Members, the notice required by By-law 26.8 is sent within three months of the date on which reporting compliance became due. The equivalent provisions for Associates are By-laws 32.8 and 38.8.
2. If the Member or Associate still does not comply, the matter may be handled under SAICA's Disciplinary Code and Procedures.
3. For specified historic non-compliance from the 2020–2025 CPD cycles, SAICA may formally invite the affected Member or Associate to complete defined remedial actions through its Rehabilitation Programme.

The route and required response depend on SAICA's notice. Do not assume that continued non-compliance produces an automatic referral or that a historic year can be corrected through a self-directed backfill. Follow the instructions and deadline in the notice, or contact SAICA's Member Compliance team for the position that applies to your case.

How to get back on track

Act promptly, but do not recreate a historic record and declare yourself compliant without SAICA's direction. For 2020–2025 cases covered by the Rehabilitation Programme, affected Members and Associates are formally notified and told which remedial actions and evidence to submit. If the issue concerns the current 2026 tax-practitioner CPD hours, SAICA says the required verifiable learning must be completed by 31 December 2026 and no extension will be granted.

• Read the SAICA notice carefully and identify the year, obligation and deadline it covers.
• Follow the remedial actions SAICA specifies; historic remediation is not a self-certified backfill.
• Submit the evidence SAICA requests within the stated period.
• Contact SAICA's Member Compliance team through the Member Portal if anything in the notice is unclear.

Keep the current year's reflective learning plan up to date going forward, but treat that as prevention rather than a substitute for the formal response SAICA requires for an earlier non-compliant year.