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December Payroll and the 13th Cheque: The Rules Employers Actually Need
⚡ Quick answer A 13th cheque is not a legal entitlement — it exists only where the contract, a collective agreement or established practice creates it. Where paid, it is taxed as ordinary remuneration. December payroll itself needs an early run date, holiday pay rules applied, and the EMP201 prepared for 7 January. December is the payroll month with everything stacked against it: early bank cut-offs, public holidays, leave everywhere, and the 13th cheque question that arrives right on cue. Handled in November, it is routine; handled on 20 December, it is the month that ruins someone’s festive season — usually the employer’s. Here are the rules that matter and…
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New Employer? Your First 30 Days, Step by Step
⚡ Quick answer A new employer’s first 30 days have a fixed order: register with SARS for PAYE within 21 days of becoming an employer, register for UIF on both the SARS and Labour sides, register with the Compensation Fund within 7 days, sign the contract before day one, and run the first payroll with the EMP201 by the 7th of the following month. Becoming a new employer triggers a set of statutory clocks that do not wait for you to find your feet. Some run for 21 days, one for only 7 — and they start the moment your first employee does. The good news: thirty days is enough…
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Year-End Payroll Checklist: Close the Year Without the January Hangover
⚡ Quick answer Year-end payroll is five jobs: fix the December pay date early, calculate 13th cheques correctly, reconcile leave balances, prepare the 7 January EMP201 before the shutdown, and clean the employee records that feed next year’s EMP501. Do them in November and December stops being an emergency. The difference between a smooth December and a brutal January is a checklist worked in November. Year-end payroll concentrates everything that can go wrong — early pay runs, bonus calculations, leave carry-overs, a January filing deadline — into the month with the fewest working days. Here is the checklist that closes the year cleanly, in the order that works. Year-End Payroll…
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Public Holidays 2026: The Payroll Rules SA Employers Get Wrong
⚡ Quick answer South Africa has 12 public holidays in 2026. The BCEA pay rules: an employee who does not work the holiday gets their ordinary day’s wage; one who works gets double pay or paid time off by agreement. When a holiday falls on a Sunday, the Monday is a holiday — that happens once in 2026, on Women’s Day. Every year, the same questions land on the employer’s desk: do we pay for the holiday, do we pay double, what happens when it falls on a Sunday? The public holidays rules in the BCEA are short and clear — the confusion comes from applying them halfway. Here is…
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National Minimum Wage 2026: What Changes on 1 March
⚡ Quick answer The national minimum wage increased to R30.23 per hour from 1 March 2026 — roughly R5,895 per month for a 45-hour week. It covers nearly every worker, including domestic and farm workers. Update payslips, wage schedules and UIF/COIDA declarations from the first March shift. Every 1 March, the wage floor moves — and from 1 March 2026 the national minimum wage stands at R30.23 per ordinary hour. For employers the change is never just an hourly figure: it flows into payslips, contracts, UIF declarations, COIDA earnings estimates, and the affordability maths for every junior role. Here is what the new rate means in rands, who it reaches,…
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Employer Deadlines: January to March 2026
⚡ Quick answer The first quarter’s employer deadlines: EMP201 and UIF declarations by the 7th every month, EE online reporting closes 15 January, provisional tax ends February, the 2025/26 tax year closes 28 February, and the new national minimum wage starts 1 March. Miss none of them — each carries its own penalty. Q1 is the quiet quarter that punishes complacency. The employer deadlines between January and March include the only two dates most small employers have never heard of — the 15 January EE window and the 1 March wage change — alongside the monthly rhythm that never stops. Here is the quarter, month by month, with what each…
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The COIDA 7-Day Rule: The Shortest Deadline in Employer Law
⚡ Quick answer The COIDA registration deadline is 7 days from your first employee’s start date — the shortest registration deadline in South African employer law. Section 80 of COIDA requires every employer, including households, to register with the Compensation Fund within that window. In practice: start the registration when the offer is accepted, not after the start date. Late registration is fixable (back-assessments plus penalties), but an injury in the gap is the scenario to avoid — the Fund can recover the entire claim cost from an unregistered employer. Every employer registration has a deadline, but only one is measured in single digits: the COIDA registration deadline of 7…
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SDL: What Happens When Your Payroll Crosses R500,000
⚡ Quick answer The Skills Development Levy (SDL) is 1% of your total payroll, payable only once your annual payroll exceeds R500,000. Cross the threshold and you register for SDL on the EMP101e (or add it to your existing SARS employer registration) and pay 1% monthly with your EMP201. The levy funds the SETA system — and employers who pay it can claim mandatory and discretionary grants back for training their own staff, which most small businesses never do. The Skills Development Levy is the payroll tax that arrives quietly: one growth spurt, a couple of new hires, and suddenly the payroll crosses R500,000 a year and SDL applies —…
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DIY Payroll vs Outsourcing: The Real Cost Comparison for Small Businesses
⚡ Quick answer DIY payroll costs a small business 4–10 hours a month of owner or admin time plus software, and carries the full penalty risk of every mistake — one missed EMP201 (10% penalty) typically costs more than a month of outsourced payroll. Outsourcing payroll converts that into a fixed fee with the deadlines, calculations and filings carried by the provider. The crossover point is usually lower than owners expect: from your first employee if payroll is not your skill set, and almost certainly by five employees. Every small employer does the same calculation eventually: keep doing payroll myself, or hand it over? The DIY column always looks cheaper…
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The Employment Tax Incentive: Free Money for Hiring Young Workers
⚡ Quick answer The Employment Tax Incentive (ETI) cuts your PAYE bill by up to R1,500 per month for each qualifying employee: aged 18–29, paid between R2,500 (or the NMW equivalent) and R7,500 a month, with a valid ID. The first-year value is R1,500 a month per employee, the second year R750. You claim it by reducing the PAYE you pay on the monthly EMP201 — no application, no refund wait — but only if all your own tax affairs are compliant, because non-compliant employers forfeit the claim. There is a SARS incentive that pays employers to hire young people — genuinely, in cash, every month — and a surprising…
