Is Payroll Africa SARS compliant?

Yes. PAYE is calculated from the official SARS tax brackets and rebates for the applicable tax year, UIF and SDL are calculated and reported monthly, and the system produces EMP201 declarations, EMP501 reconciliations and IRP5/IT3(a) certificates in the formats SARS expects. We update the tax tables every budget year.

How do I know the PAYE on a payslip is correct?

Every payslip shows the full breakdown: taxable income, the bracket applied, the annualised tax, the rebate and the monthly figure. You can check any payslip against the published SARS tables line by line — we encourage it.

What happens when SARS changes the tax tables?

We load the new tables for the new tax year and the system applies them automatically from the first pay date of that year. Historical runs keep the tables that were correct at the time, so past payslips never change retroactively.

Can I override a statutory amount?

Yes — for example when SARS issues a tax directive for a specific employee. The system never lets this happen silently: it shows the calculated amount next to your override and asks you to confirm, so genuine directives go through and accidental errors are caught.

Is my payroll data safe and POPIA compliant?

Payroll data is encrypted in transit and at rest, isolated per company at the database level, and every change is written to an audit log. You remain the responsible party under POPIA and we act as your operator. See our Trust Centre for the full detail.

Compliance & accuracy

Compliant by calculation, not by promise.

Payroll Africa calculates PAYE, UIF, SDL and every other statutory line from the official tax tables of your country — South Africa and 53 others — and produces the filings to match. Here is exactly how we keep your payroll correct.

Start free trial Talk to our team

Nine ways we keep your payroll right

Compliance is not a certificate on a wall — it is what happens inside every calculation, every run and every filing. These are the controls that are live in the product today.

Official tax tables, not estimates

PAYE is calculated from the official SARS tax brackets and rebates for the correct tax year — the same tables SARS publishes in the Budget. The same applies to the other 53 supported African countries, each with its own local PAYE brackets, social security and levies.

Statutory deductions handled for you

UIF and SDL are calculated on the correct bases and reported every month. ETI is applied where your employees qualify, so you claim what you are entitled to without manual spreadsheets.

Filing-ready outputs

Generate EMP201 monthly declarations, EMP501 interim and annual reconciliations, IRP5/IT3(a) certificates, UIF declarations and COIDA Return of Earnings figures — ready for eFiling and submission.

Kept up to date, every budget

Tax tables are updated every budget year. The system automatically applies the table that matches your company's country and the pay date — and a daily integrity scan checks every open payroll run against the correct table, so a wrong rate cannot slip through quietly.

Transparent calculations

Every payslip shows the full calculation breakdown — earnings, taxable income, bracket math, rebates and deductions. You never have to trust a black box; you can verify every rand yourself.

Overrides are flagged, never silent

If someone overrides a statutory amount, the system shows a warning with the calculated amount side by side with the override — and offers to restore the correct figure. Nothing is silently wrong.

Data security & audit trail

Encryption in transit and at rest, tenant isolation enforced in the database, role-based access, and an immutable audit log of every payroll and administrative action. POPIA responsibilities are clearly split between you and us.

Read the Trust Centre

Built around the law

Calculations follow the Income Tax Act, the BCEA and Department of Employment and Labour requirements, including record retention, leave accrual rules and certificate layouts SARS expects.

Verified before it reaches you

Payroll runs cannot be finalised while statutory figures disagree with the tax tables, and regression tests run against the calculation engine on every change we ship.

From pay date to filing in three steps

Set your company and pay date

Payroll Africa resolves the correct country, currency and tax year automatically from your company's registered country and the period you're paying.

Run payroll

PAYE, UIF, SDL and every other statutory line is calculated from the official tables. Anything unusual — an override, a missing rate — is surfaced as a warning before you approve.

File with confidence

Download your EMP201, EMP501, IRP5s and UIF outputs knowing the numbers on them are the same numbers on the payslips.

Track every rate change that affects your payroll on our regulatory updates page.

Questions employers ask us

Is Payroll Africa SARS compliant?: Yes. PAYE is calculated from the official SARS tax brackets and rebates for the applicable tax year, UIF and SDL are calculated and reported monthly, and the system produces EMP201 declarations, EMP501 reconciliations and IRP5/IT3(a) certificates in the formats SARS expects. We update the tax tables every budget year.
How do I know the PAYE on a payslip is correct?: Every payslip shows the full breakdown: taxable income, the bracket applied, the annualised tax, the rebate and the monthly figure. You can check any payslip against the published SARS tables line by line — we encourage it.
What happens when SARS changes the tax tables?: We load the new tables for the new tax year and the system applies them automatically from the first pay date of that year. Historical runs keep the tables that were correct at the time, so past payslips never change retroactively.
Can I override a statutory amount?: Yes — for example when SARS issues a tax directive for a specific employee. The system never lets this happen silently: it shows the calculated amount next to your override and asks you to confirm, so genuine directives go through and accidental errors are caught.
Is my payroll data safe and POPIA compliant?: Payroll data is encrypted in transit and at rest, isolated per company at the database level, and every change is written to an audit log. You remain the responsible party under POPIA and we act as your operator. See our Trust Centre for the full detail.

For security, POPIA and data-protection detail, visit our Trust Centre. For a worked example of the PAYE math, see our SARS-compliant payroll guide.

See your own numbers calculated correctly

Start a free trial, run one real payroll, and compare every line against the official tables yourself.

Start free trial See pricing