{"id":730359,"date":"2023-11-13T08:34:53","date_gmt":"2023-11-13T06:34:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=730359"},"modified":"2023-11-13T08:42:59","modified_gmt":"2023-11-13T06:42:59","slug":"tips-to-wrap-up-bonuses-and-year-end-payroll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/industry-news\/730359\/tips-to-wrap-up-bonuses-and-year-end-payroll\/","title":{"rendered":"Tips to wrap up bonuses and year-end payroll"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Year-end payroll management is approaching \u2013 bringing extra stress such as bonuses, public holidays, annual leave, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is easy to get overwhelmed at this time of year as a business owner, as you must juggle efficiency and increased workloads with compliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/sage-business-cloud\/payroll-1\/?utm_source=BusinessTech&amp;utm_medium=Article&amp;utm_campaign=November+2023\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/sage-business-cloud\/payroll-1\/?utm_source=BusinessTech&amp;utm_medium=Article&amp;utm_campaign=November+2023\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Click here to learn about Sage\u2019s cloud-based HR and payroll software.<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Sage has therefore crafted this guide to help you navigate this challenging period and wrap up bonuses and year-end payroll effectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Automation is valuable<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Business owners will know that income tax is affected by many different elements \u2013 including overtime, commissions, bonuses, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the most challenging things about being a business owner is ensuring all these elements are covered when determining an employee\u2019s PAYE (pay-as-you-earn). This becomes more challenging when you are the one having to juggle payroll, staff, admin and all other tasks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By using high-quality cloud HR and payroll software, this process can be automated \u2013 making payroll management much simpler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A great cloud-based HR and payroll solution also delivers the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Data accuracy &#8211;<\/strong> Automation will alert you to any errors or inaccuracies.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Submissions &#8211;<\/strong> Reconciliations and payroll data are easily submitted to SARS.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Payslip management &#8211;<\/strong> Cloud-based software provides options like printing or emailing payslips.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Compliance \u2013<\/strong> Cloud-based software is updated automatically whenever legislation and regulations change.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Taxation on bonuses<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>If your business offers year-end bonuses, the criteria and details must form part of either company policy or each worker\u2019s employment contract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is because these bonuses form part of an employee\u2019s taxable remuneration and must be accounted for when calculating each employee\u2019s tax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even if your employees receive year-end benefits other than cash bonuses \u2013 such as vouchers and other fringe benefits &#8211; these must still be reflected on their tax certificate and be taxed accordingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is advisable to view SARS\u2019s guidelines to understand the tax applicable to benefits other than cash bonuses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Planning for tax on bonus<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Year-end bonuses are taxed in the same way as other remuneration; however, the bonus will be added to the employee\u2019s annual remuneration before the tax is calculated. As the bonus will increase the employee\u2019s remuneration, it may result in a spike in the tax in the month in which the bonus is paid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a business owner managing the payroll, you must therefore understand the possible tax effects of bonus payments and design payroll policies and remuneration packages accordingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is also important for employees to understand that they may request the employer to withhold additional PAYE during the year, to provide for the tax even before the bonus is paid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Your end-of-year payroll checklist<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>With the right knowledge, tools, and software at your disposal, you are now ready to tackle your end-of-year payroll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is a great idea to use a checklist to make sure that you cover all necessary bases \u2013 and we have you covered below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>1.  Confirm employee information<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have a cloud-based HR and payroll solution, employees can update their own details using a self-service portal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alternatively, you will need to verify these details with each employee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Details to be confirmed include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Names<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>ID\/passport numbers<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Bank account numbers<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Income tax reference numbers<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Address information and telephone numbers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>2.  Ensure all payments have been recorded<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Salaries are the easy part, as they are relatively consistent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once you have processed salaries, look out for any extra payments made to your employees \u2013 like commissions and bonuses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is critical that these are all accounted for within your records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>3.  Leave schedules<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>When it comes to tracking and recording leave, automated systems are a necessity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Without an automated system, forms can get lost, data can be captured inaccurately, and much more can go wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With an automated system, on the other hand, employees can submit and manage their leave through a self-service portal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This saves your payroll department lots of time and money and reduces frustration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Regarding leave, another great idea is to facilitate the approval process for annual leave early.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This will reduce the stress of managing leave schedules at the last moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>4.  Do your final payroll<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>When processing and paying out end-of-year bonuses and commissions, the way you do this can affect things like tax brackets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cloud-based HR and payroll software is a lifesaver in this regard, as it will use the power of automation to streamline the entire payment process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These solutions can be tailored to your specific business needs and eliminate tedious tasks like manual data entry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Legislative and regulatory changes will be accounted for, employees and contractors will be classified correctly, and payments will be made on time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let your software do the hard work \u2013 while you breathe a sigh of relief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/sage-business-cloud\/payroll-1\/?utm_source=BusinessTech&amp;utm_medium=Article&amp;utm_campaign=November+2023\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/sage-business-cloud\/payroll-1\/?utm_source=BusinessTech&amp;utm_medium=Article&amp;utm_campaign=November+2023\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Click here to learn about Sage\u2019s cloud-based HR and payroll software.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>By: Yolandi Esterhuizen, Director of Global Compliance: Product Management<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Year-end payroll management is coming \u2013 this is your guide to navigating this challenging period.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":730363,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10459],"tags":[1033],"class_list":["post-730359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-news","tag-sage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=730359"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":730369,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730359\/revisions\/730369"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/730363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}