BUSINESS TIPS - Payroll Tips for Tax Year End 2010 - Part 3

BUSINESS TIPS – Payroll Tips for Tax Year End 2010 – Part 3


By Nikki Viljoen – Viljoen Consulting CC January 2010

Last week I touched on some of the requirements that an employer would need to work through in terms of the payroll and the tax year end pertaining to 2010.

Here are the rest of the requirements that I came across during my research.

Now you have to get a little technological:
• This is where you have to go to the SARS website at http://www.sars.gov.za and then in the middle of the page towards the top you will see the e@syFile logo. Click on that to download the file. Be aware though that according to the latest information (latest at the time this article was written), the upgrade will only be available from 1st April 2010 (so diarize it and do it then).
• Once the download is complete you need to capture all the employee information as well at the tax certificate information onto e@syFile. This must include:
- All the employee’s personal information
- The employee’s contact details including their residential address
- The employee’s bank account details
- The Employment information
- The Source Codes and Amounts. Please be aware that you will need to use the correct source codes for all the transactions that were used on all the employees payslips and that where necessary, the source codes may have to be consolidated. Be sure to enter the correct values for each source code.
• Next you will need to consolidate the EMP201 with the monthly SARS payments on the EMP501 reconciliation. Make sure that these amounts balance with the tax certificate values.
• The tax certificates and Reconciliation Declaration using SARS e@syFile must be submitted before 31 May 2010 to ensure that you are not hit with penalties and interest. Again, diarize it to ensure that it is submitted on time.

That’s the end of that – make sure you keep these notes so that you know what to do in 2011. I know that it looks like it could be quite a mission, but the truth of the matter is that once you have loaded what needs to be loaded, most of it is a once off. Keep notes as since it is only needed once a year, it is very easy to ‘forget’ what to do.

Remember, if you are not sure about what you are doing rather go to SARS and speak to one of the consultants there – better to do this the right way than to mess it up and have hassles with SARS thereafter.

Next week we will be looking at something different again.

Nikki is an Internal Auditor and Business Administration Specialist who can be contacted on 083 702 8849 or nikki@viljoenconsulting.co.za or http://www.viljoenconsulting.co.za