SARS Employer Filing Season News:
Employers are reminded that they must submit their annual and interim EMP501 Reconciliation/s for a specific period through only one channel. If an employer elects to submit the EMP501 Reconciliation through e@syFile for the period August 2020, the employer cannot then revise the submission through eFiling, or vice versa.
The Employer does however have the option to elect a different submission channel for the next filing period.
Employers who correctly declared the SDL payable for the months of May to August 2020 as zero, due to the COVID-19 SDL holiday announced during 2020 in terms of the Disaster Management Tax Relief Measures for this period, should ensure that the zero values for these months are correctly declared on the –
- February 2021 EMP 501 Reconciliation Declaration, and/or
- 2021 IRP5/IT3(a) tax certificates submitted to SARS and issued to employees.
If the SDL for these 4 months are overstated on the February 2021 EMP501 and/or 2021 IRP5/IT3(a) certificates (i.e. effectively ignoring the COVID-19 SDL holiday), the Reconciliation process will automatically increase the SDL payable for February 2021 and possibly resulting in outstanding debt on the SDL account as well as late payment penalties and interest being charged.
Affected employers are required to correct the SDL values reflected on the EMP501 and/or IRP5/IT3(a) certificates and to resubmit the corrected reconciliation documents to SARS. It is suggested that where affected employers used an electronic payroll, the payroll supplier be contacted for assistance to correct the EMP501 and/or certificates, where necessary.
