{"id":769469,"date":"2024-04-25T11:48:04","date_gmt":"2024-04-25T09:48:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=769469"},"modified":"2024-04-25T11:48:10","modified_gmt":"2024-04-25T09:48:10","slug":"sars-issues-tax-alert-for-employers-in-south-africa-with-a-warning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/769469\/sars-issues-tax-alert-for-employers-in-south-africa-with-a-warning\/","title":{"rendered":"SARS issues tax alert for employers in South Africa &#8211; with a warning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has issued an alert reminding employers that the Employer Annual Reconciliation period is currently open and will close at the end of May 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Employers in South Africa are obligated to deduct and declare the correct amount of tax from their employee&#8217;s remuneration each month and pay this over to SARS. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the reconciliation period, employers must submit the reconciliation forms (EMP501), which must include the latest and most accurate payroll information regarding their employees and the tax they have deducted, <strong>covering the full tax year from 1 March 2023 to 29 February 2024<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The employer\u2019s annual reconciliation must be submitted by 31 May 2024, so that employees&#8217; auto-assessments and tax returns can be prepared accurately,&#8221; SARS said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The EMP501 must include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Monthly Employer declarations (EMP201) for PAYE, Unemployment Insurance Fund contributions (UIF), and the Skills Development Levy.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Information about payments made (excluding penalties and interest paid). <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Employee tax certificates (IRP5\/IT3[a] generated) covering the tax year from 1 March 2023 to 29 February 2024.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sars.gov.za\/types-of-tax\/pay-as-you-earn\/\"><strong>More information can be found here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>SARS warned that it would be coming after employers who fail their tax obligations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;(SARS wants) to make tax non-compliance hard and costly through, where necessary, hard enforcement\u2014for example, court action, asset seizure, and criminal prosecution,&#8221; it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Failure by an employer to comply with its obligations harms not only that employer and the fiscus but also employees. SARS vigorously pursues employers that fail to comply.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The taxman said that submitting an incomplete EMP501 or submitting an EMP501 after the due date will result in administrative penalties, amounting to 1% of the year\u2019s PAYE liability. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This penalty increases by 1% monthly, reaching up to 10% of the year\u2019s PAYE liability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is a criminal offence for an Employer wilfully or negligently to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Fail to submit full and complete EMP201 or EMP501 returns to SARS by the due date.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Fail to issue an IRP5 or IT3(a) certificate to an employee within the specified periods.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Fail to deduct or withhold PAYE or UIF, or not to pay any PAYE or UIF deducted or withheld over to SARS as required by law.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use or apply PAYE deducted or withheld for any purpose other than to pay that amount to SARS.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Any person found guilty of one of these offences is liable, on conviction, to a fine or imprisonment for up to two years,&#8221; SARS said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Other May tax deadline<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to employer reconciliation, the annual third-party (IT3) data submission season will also be closing on 31 May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>IT3 reporting sees third parties, such as medical aid schemes, employers and banks, sending SARS certain prescribed data called \u201cthird party data.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The data is sent to SARS in the form of tax certificates, which SARS then uses in their assessments of various taxpayers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These certificates differ per industry, with medical aid schemes submitting medical aid tax certifications, while employers will submit IRP5 tax certificates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Notably, for the first time in South Africa, Section 18A-approved PBOs have now been added to the list of third parties required to submit third-party data to SARS through the submission of IT3(d) tax certificates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For taxpayers, donations made to section 18A-approved organisations are one of the ways that South Africans can lower their tax bill \u2013 limited to 10% of a taxpayer\u2019s income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/769233\/sars-is-coming-down-hard-on-taxpayers-but-theres-some-good-news-for-trusts\/\">SARS is coming down hard on taxpayers \u2013 but there\u2019s some good news for trusts<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SARS has issued an alert reminding employers in South Africa of looming tax deadlines &#8211; and what awaits those who miss them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":736439,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-769469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769469","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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=769469"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":769473,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769469\/revisions\/769473"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/736439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}