POL-TM-07 - External Guide Template - SARS Home

1 External Guide e@syFileTM EMPLOYER USER Guide External Guide E@SYFILE EMPLOYER USER Guide PAYE-easyFile-G001 REVISION: 2 Page 2 of 105 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS 2 1 PURPOSE 4 2 THE E@SYFILETM EMPLOYER PROCESS 6 INSTALLING OR UPDATING E@SYFILE EMPLOYER 6 ACCESSING THE E@SYFILE EMPLOYER SOFTWARE 9 3 INTRODUCING THE MENU AND FUNCTIONS FOR E@SYFILE EMPLOYER 12 NEW DATABASE ENCRYPTION AND DECRYPTION 12 DATABASE SPLIT BY PAYE REFERENCE NUMBER 12 CREATE EMPLOYER 15 EDIT EMPLOYER 19 CREATE EMPLOYEES 20 CAPTURE MANUAL CERTIFICATES 23 IMPORT PAYROLL FILE 26 CHECKING PAYROLL AND EMPLOYEE DETAILS 30 AMENDING CERTIFICATES WITHIN E@SYFILE EMPLOYER 32 CANCELLING CERTIFICATES WITHIN E@SYFILE EMPLOYER 33 CANCELLING AN INDIVIDUAL CERTIFICATE 33 CANCELLING A RANGE OF CERTIFICATES 35 COMPLETING THE EMP501 AND RECONCILING ANNUAL EMPLOYEES TAX 36 ELECTRONIC

2 SUBMISSION OF RECONCILIATION DECLARATIONS TO SARS44 RESUBMISSION OF EMP501 48 COMPLETING A RECONCILIATION DECLARATION ADJUSTMENT (EMP701) 49 PRINTING CERTIFICATES 53 REGISTERING THE EMPLOYER FOR EFILING 54 UPDATE SOFTWARE 54 CREATING A BACKUP OF YOUR DATABASE 55 MERGE MULTIPLE DATABASES 56 RESTORE DATABASE FROM A BACK-UP 60 EMP501 STATUS DASHBOARD 60 MANAGING PAYROLL FILE IMPORTS IN E@SYFILE EMPLOYER 63 MANAGE PAYROLL FILE EDITING IN E@SYFILE EMPLOYER 63 DELETING PAYROLL FILES 64 RESET PASSWORD 65 REASSIGN CERTIFICATE 66 GENERATE IRP5/IT3(A) PDFS 67 NEW NOTIFICATION CENTRE 68 USING THE HELP FUNCTION 72 External Guide E@SYFILE EMPLOYER USER Guide PAYE-easyFile-G001 REVISION: 2 Page 3 of 105 4 THE MONTHLY EMPLOYER DECLARATION (EMP201) USING E@SYFILE EMPLOYER 73 OVERVIEW 73 SUBMITTING YOUR EMP201 73 REVISING AN EMP201 78 SCENARIO 1: INCREASING A PREVIOUS EMP201 78 SCENARIO 2: DECREASING A PREVIOUS EMP201 79 SCENARIO 3: INCORRECT PERIOD SELECTED DURING ORIGINAL EMP201 SUBMISSION 80 UNALLOCATED CREDIT 82 PAYING YOUR MONTHLY EMP201 83 DECLARATION HISTORY 84 STATUS DASHBOARD 85 MAKING PAYMENT 86 STATEMENT OF ACCOUNT 87 5.

3 INCOME TAX REGISTRATION OF EMPLOYEES 89 INDIVIDUAL INCOME TAX REGISTRATION 89 BULK INCOME TAX REGISTRATION 91 BUNDLED INCOME TAX REGISTRATION 91 6. EFILING SYNCHRONISATION 95 6. 1 EFILING PROFILE AND EMPLOYER INFORMATION, LETTER AND CORRESPONDENCE (INCLUDING IT88 NOTICES) AND ALL 96 TAXPAYER INCOME TAX REGISTRATIONS 97 7 DEFINITIONS AND ACRONYMS 105 External Guide E@SYFILE EMPLOYER USER Guide PAYE-easyFile-G001 REVISION: 2 Page 4 of 105 1 PURPOSE SARS constantly strives to improve its service offering to taxpayers. Changes introduced to SARS systems are a vital part of our vision to have a more accurate reconciliation process. More information at SARS disposal means a less cumbersome tax process, as returns/declarations are increasingly pre-populated.

4 Employers are required to submit an Employer Reconciliation Declaration (EMP501) to SARS twice a year. These are the: Interim reconciliation declaration for the six month period 1 March to 31 August that must be submitted by 31 October Annual reconciliation declaration for the full year 1 March to 28/29 February that must be submitted to 31 May The opening of the Employer Filing Season will be communicated before the start of each filing period. The Employer Filing Season dates will be made available on the SARS website. In these declarations employers have to confirm or correct the amounts they declared for: Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE), Skills Development Levy (SDL), the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) and Employer Tax Incentive (ETI) in their Monthly Employer Declarations (EMP201s) submitted Payments made Tax values of the Employee Tax Certificates [IRP5/IT3(a)s].

5 Using e@syFile Employer, you can now: Finalise and submit your EMP201 and make payments. Finalise and submit your interim and annual EMP501 in five basic steps: Step 1 The employer s current payroll system generates electronic tax certificates [IRP5/IT3(a)s] in a CSV file which is imported into e@syFile Employer. Step 2 The employer uses e@syFile Employer to capture all manual certificates. Step 3 e@syFile Employer uses information from all the tax certificates to automatically populate certificate totals for the EMP501. The employer retrieves pre-populated monthly liability amounts in e@syFile Employer, captures payment amounts and e@syFile Employer calculates the rest. Step 4 You can make your declaration by generating the CSV tax certificate file from the payroll system, and importing this file into e@syFile Employer for submission to SARS.

6 Using e@syFile Employer, you can capture additional manual certificates, cancel certificates, and capture EMP501 or EMP701 details. Then submit your reconciliation declaration to SARS via online using e@syFile Employer. e@syFile Employer also automatically generates Adobe PDF versions of all tax certificates ready to be given to employees (either printed or electronically) for Personal Income Tax External Guide E@SYFILE EMPLOYER USER Guide PAYE-easyFile-G001 REVISION: 2 Page 5 of 105 Filing Season. However, for the interim (biannual) PAYE reconciliation, only finalised certificates may be issued to employees whose employment was terminated prior to the closing of the interim period. In this intance, the certificate number must reflect the full reconciliation period (02).

7 Step 5 You can capture additional manual IRP5/IT3(a)s, cancel certificates [Tax Certificate Cancellation Declaration (EMP601)], and capture the EMP501 or make adjustments to previous year s reconciliation submissions [Reconciliation Declaration Adjustment (EMP701)]. Then submit your reconciliation declaration to SARS via online using e@syFile Employer via SARS eFiling using an eFiling username and password. To create the encrypted file, generate the CSV tax certificate file from the payroll system and import this into e@syFile Employer. Signed hard copies of the EMP501, and, if applicable, the EMP601 and EMP701 must be submitted together with the disk. Once SARS has captured the information, the disk will be returned to you, to sustain the security of the information provided.

8 The Adobe PDF versions of the tax certificates generated by e@syFile Employer can be given to employees (either printed or electronically) for Personal Income Tax (PIT) filing season. However, for the Interim Reconciliation, only finalised certificates may be issued to employees whose employment was terminated prior to the closing of the interim period or the employer ceased to be an employer on or the closing of the interim period. In this instance, the certificate number must reflect the full reconciliation period (02). Register employees for Income Tax and obtain feedback SARS announced in September 2010 that all individuals in formal employment, irrespective of their income, have to register for Income Tax. To help employers, three registration options are made available to register employees namely: Individual Income Tax Registration (ITREG), where an employer can register only one employee and you get the tax number immediately.

9 Bulk ITREG, where SARS registers employees using the latest reconciliation submissions provided by employers. The bulk registration option is performed twice a year after the interim and annual reconciliation periods. The registration should be accompanied by the EMP501. Bundled ITREG process enables employers to register multiple employees (from one up to a thousand) at a time. With bundle registration, you can register employees anytime outside the reconciliation period and you do not require the EMP501 to register employees. Previously SARS provided feedback to employers on the outcome of the registration process for employees that were successfully registered. SARS will now also inform employers where an employee could not be registered. The table below details the possible statuses which can be received, the description and the required steps to be taken: STATUS DESCRIPTION STEPS TO BE TAKEN Registered New Income Tax reference number provided.

10 None Existing Taxpayer Taxpayer was found to be already registered. The employee must provide the Income Tax External Guide E@SYFILE EMPLOYER USER Guide PAYE-easyFile-G001 REVISION: 2 Page 6 of 105 reference number. Unable to Register-Employee must Contact SARS A problem was identified with the employee s data submitted. multiple Income Tax registration numbers exist for the employee The employee must contact SARS to resolve the identified issue. Insufficient Information The employee has not been registered. incomplete personal details, invalid postal address, incomplete address details, etc. The employee must provide all the necessary registration details to the employer, for the registration request. Not Verified Invalid or incorrect information provided and SARS is unable to verify the registration status of the employee.