Monthly filings

The EMP201 and UIF declaration Payroll prepares each month, how to mark them submitted, and what happens when figures change

Each month Payroll works out your EMP201 for SARS and your UIF declaration for the Department of Employment and Labour from the month's finalised pay runs. You submit them yourself, on eFiling and uFiling, and then mark them as submitted in Payroll.

Open Filings to see every month in the tax year with its PAYE, SDL, UIF, ETI used, Total payable, the date the EMP201 is due and the UIF declaration's status. The Dashboard also shows the next deadlines under Filing deadlines, and the EMP201 and UIF deadlines in Financials link to these pages.

Downloading filings and marking them submitted needs the Produce filings permission, and only a person can do it, never the assistant. The UIF declaration also needs permission to see salaries and ID numbers, because the file names each employee.

The EMP201

Open a month from Filings, or click EMP201 on a finalised run. The page is titled EMP201 for the month and shows the due date.

The figures are laid out in eFiling's order, so you can copy them across field by field:

Section	Fields
Payroll Tax Calculation	PAYE Liability, SDL Liability, UIF Liability (employee and employer together), Payroll Liability
ETI Calculation	ETI Brought Forward, ETI Calculated, ETI Utilised, ETI Carry Forward
Total Payable	PAYE Payable (PAYE liability less ETI utilised), SDL Payable, UIF Payable, Penalty & Interest, Total Payable

Penalty & Interest is always 0 here. Add any SARS has charged, from your statement of account, when you file.

The page also shows:

Payment reference: your PAYE reference and the payment period, for paying SARS.
Employment Tax Incentive: the EMP201's question "Do you have any outstanding returns or debt with SARS?". Answer No, we're compliant or Yes, we have some. Until it's answered, or if you answer yes, no ETI is used that month and it carries forward.
Per employee: each person's share.

Click Download figures to keep a copy for filing.

Nil returns

Once your PAYE registration date is set in Payroll settings, Payroll expects an EMP201 for every month from then on. A month with no finalised run shows as a nil return: file it on eFiling with every amount as 0.

Paying SARS

Pay the total to SARS as usual. When the payment shows on your bank statement, match it in Financials.

The UIF declaration

Open it from Filings, or click UIF declaration on a finalised run. It lists everyone employed in the month from their finalised payslips, with their Gross taxable, UIF remuneration and Contribution, and anyone who doesn't contribute with the reason.

The UIF itself is paid to SARS with the EMP201. The declaration tells the Fund who you employed. It's due by the 7th of the following month on uFiling.

Click Download a test file to have uFiling check the file without storing it, if you want to.
Click Download declaration and upload the file on uFiling.

Payroll reads every file back against the Fund's own checks before you download it. The page lists problems under Fix these on uFiling and What the Fund's checks will flag, and people left off under Not on the declaration. A problem that would get the file rejected stops the download until it's fixed.

Maternity, adoption and illness leave recorded on an employee's page under Leave on the UIF declaration shows on the declaration for the months it covers.

Marking a filing as submitted

Once you've submitted the EMP201 or UIF declaration, open its page and click Mark as submitted. This clears the deadline and freezes the filed figures as the month's original return. Undo takes it back if you marked it by mistake.

When SARS or the Fund answers, record it on the same page: choose Accepted or Rejected under SARS said (or The Fund said), add Their reference, and click Record. An accepted or rejected return can't be undone. If it was rejected, fix it, submit it again and mark it again.

A month marked as submitted can't have its runs reversed. Correct the payslips on a later run instead. See Correcting a finalised payslip.

When figures change after filing

If a correction or a run changes a month you already downloaded or filed, the month's page says so:

Downloaded, not yet filed: a warning says the figures changed after they were downloaded. Download them again before you file.
Filed EMP201: a card lists each field that changed, with its Filed figure, the new one and the Difference, and the runs and corrections that explain it. Revise the EMP201 on eFiling with the new figures, then click Mark the revision as submitted. Payroll first asks What eFiling shows for the month (for example, SARS audited or revised it or An agreed estimate) and refuses a revision SARS wouldn't allow.
Filed UIF declaration: download the declaration again. It keeps the file name it was filed under, so it replaces the file you sent.

If the runs and corrections don't account for the whole difference, check Reconciliation before revising.

Reconciliation

Reconciliation runs the checks SARS runs at the EMP501 every night, on each month so far, so a mismatch shows in the month it happens instead of at year end. Click Run the checks now to run them straight away. The Dashboard lists failed checks under What needs doing.