The SA Revenue Service (SARS) has urged employers to comply with their legal obligations regarding the annual employers’ filing season.
In order to avoid penalties, interest or criminal charges, employers must comply with the May 31 deadline.
“Employers are required to submit their employer annual reconciliation declarations [EMP501] to SARS, as well as outstanding monthly declarations and previous years’ annual reconciliations,” said SARS in a statement.
“Pay-as-you-earn payments must be up-to-date and the IRP5/IT3[a] data provided to SARS must be verified and accurate.”
The revenue service added that the correct data are important to allow it to pre-populate income tax returns and auto-assess the identified taxpayers correctly.
It emphasized that the correct data are also important where taxpayers have to file a return, to enable them to do so with the correct information during the filing season for individuals, which starts in July.
Third-party data suppliers such as medical aid schemes and banks are also required to submit verified and accurate information to SARS and to their clients.
“These are important requirements that enable SARS to offer a streamlined and seamless service to taxpayers in line with our objective to make it easy and simple for taxpayers to comply with their obligations,” said SARS.
According to SARS, employers, tax practitioners and payroll administrators need to download the latest version of Employers e@syFile.
“This online channel allows employers to submit their EMP501 electronically. SARS also encourages small, medium and micro enterprises to use this platform and move from manual to automated payroll systems.”
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