2013 SARS Employer Filing season is now open

SARS has announced the annual PAYE reconciliation submission season for the period 01 April – 31 May 2013.

All South African employers are required to reconcile and submit PAYE, UIF and SDL contributions for the period 01 March 2012 to 28 February 2013. SARS requires employers to submit accurate and complete employee tax certificates and a reconciliation of contributions for the year.

The first step for companies is to ensure that they download the latest version of the e@syFile™ Employer system from the SARS website www.sarsefiling.co.za.

“It is critical that companies download and install this software before conducting their PAYE, SDL and UIF reconciliations to ensure accuracy and compliance with SARS requirements,” says Philip Meyer, technology director at payroll and HR software specialist Sage Pastel Payroll & HR.

Companies must take note that any information submitted using a previous version of the e@syFile™ Employer system, will not be accepted by SARS.

Companies are advised to backup their current information on their computers prior to installing a new version of e@syFile™ Employer, as the installation may delete the current information.

SARS will reject tax certificates that do not have an income tax number and the e@syFile™ Employer system will issue the submitting company a message declaring that penalties can be raised on the employer as a result of the missing information. Employers must confirm the company’s assent to the SARS penalties procedure before their companies can continue with reconciliation and submission. SARS also intends increasing employer penalties applying to employee tax certificates that do not have a registered tax number.

If companies want to register employees for a tax reference number, they can either go into a SARS branch, or they can log onto the e@syFile™ Employer system and load their employees manually. To follow the verification status of the tax reference number, companies can use the ITReg functionality of the e@syFile™ Employer system and follow a synchronisation process to obtain a CSV file with their employees’ tax reference numbers.

Companies using an automated payroll software solution can obtain employee tax reference numbers via the Bulk ITREG functionality and the e@syFile™ Employer system to simplify the reconciliation.

Those using automated payroll solutions need only capture employees’ information and their payslip details.

During the year end procedures, the electronic tax certificates are generated automatically in the IRP5.13 file. This file can be imported directly into the e@syFile™ Employer system and the payroll EMP501 Reconciliation Report to complete the PAYE, SDL and UIF reconciliations. Meyer emphasises that this saves businesses considerable time and cost compared to manual calculation and capturing to complete the PAYE reconciliation submission.

“Companies are advised to submit sooner than later, to provide them with ample time to rectify any reconciliation problems,” says Meyer.