Tax & Statutory Compliance

PAYE

South African PAYE is calculated by annualising remuneration for the period, applying the SARS tax tables for the tax year, deducting the applicable rebates, and dividing back to the period.

1. Annualise taxable remuneration (period remuneration × periods per year, plus year-to-date actuals for accuracy).
2. Deduct allowable deductions (retirement funding within the 27.5% / R350,000 cap, and so on).
3. Apply the tax table for the year of assessment.
4. Deduct rebates: primary, secondary (65+) and tertiary (75+).
5. Deduct medical scheme fees tax credits.
6. Divide by the number of periods and subtract PAYE already deducted year to date.

Annual payments such as bonuses are spread correctly so a bonus month does not over-tax the employee.

UIF

1% employee and 1% employer of remuneration, each capped at the statutory monthly ceiling. Employees who work fewer than 24 hours a month, and certain other categories, are excluded — use the per-employee UIF switch rather than manual adjustments.

SDL

1% of total remuneration, paid by the employer only. Employers with an annual payroll below R500,000 are exempt. Learners under a registered learnership are excluded from the SDL base.

Verify the tables

Tax tables change annually. Super administrators maintain them under Tax years, and the dashboard prompts a verification before the first live run of a new tax year.

What ETI is

A government incentive that reduces the PAYE an employer pays over, for qualifying young employees. It does not change what the employee is paid.

Qualifying criteria

• Employee aged 18 to 29 (age limits do not apply in special economic zones)
• Has a valid South African ID, asylum seeker permit or refugee status
• Employed on or after 1 October 2013
• Earns at least the minimum wage applicable and below the monthly remuneration ceiling
• Is not a connected person to the employer or a domestic worker

How it is calculated

The incentive is banded on monthly remuneration and differs between the first 12 qualifying months and the second 12 qualifying months. Employees working less than 160 hours in the month have their remuneration grossed up for the test and the incentive pro-rated.

In the system

Set the employee's ETI eligibility on the employee record. Each run calculates the ETI amount and tracks the qualifying month counter automatically. The ETI total reduces the PAYE payable on your EMP201, and unused ETI carries forward within the reconciliation period.

Common mistakes

Claiming for employees under the minimum wage, forgetting the 24-month limit, and failing to keep proof of age and identity. The ETI report gives you a per-employee audit trail for SARS.

EMP201

Due by the 7th of the following month. Under Filings, choose the tax month to see PAYE, UIF, SDL and ETI totals exactly as they must be captured on eFiling. Export the supporting schedule and store the SARS payment reference against the period.

EMP501

The interim reconciliation (six months to August) and the annual reconciliation (twelve months to February) reconcile three things: the EMP201s declared, the payments made, and the IRP5/IT3(a) certificates issued.

How to reconcile

1. Run the EMP501 report for the period.
2. Compare declared versus calculated per month; investigate any difference.
3. Confirm every employee who was paid has a certificate.
4. Export the certificate file for import into SARS e@syFile.

Common causes of a mismatch

Manual EMP201 captures that differ from the payroll, payments allocated to the wrong period, terminations processed late, and ETI claimed on eFiling but not recorded in payroll.

Before you close

• Every payroll run for the year is finalised
• All terminations are captured with correct dates
• Every employee has a valid tax number, ID and address
• Fringe benefits and directors' remuneration are complete
• The EMP501 balances

Generating certificates

Filings → IRP5 generates certificates for every employee paid in the year. The system builds each certificate from the source codes carried on your payroll items — which is why setting them correctly once, at item level, pays off every February.

Certificate types

IRP5 for employees with PAYE deducted; IT3(a) where no tax was deducted, with the correct reason code.

e@syFile

Export the CSV import file, import it into e@syFile, run the SARS validations, and submit. Any validation error points at a specific certificate and field so you can correct it in payroll and re-export.

Distributing certificates

Publish certificates to the self-service portal and notify employees by email, WhatsApp or SMS.

COIDA Return of Earnings

Due annually. The report gives you actual earnings for the past year and estimated earnings for the coming year, per employee category, with directors and the earnings ceiling handled correctly.

The earnings ceiling

Earnings above the annual COIDA ceiling are excluded from the assessable amount. The system applies the current ceiling automatically.

UI-19

Generate the UIF declaration of employees for the Department of Labour, including engagements, terminations and the correct termination reason codes for each employee who left.

Keeping evidence

Every generated return is stored under Documents with the date and the user who generated it, so an inspection can be answered without reconstructing history.