Small Businesses – Taxpayers

What’s New? 

• 27 August 2024 – Updated e@syFile™ Employer Beta Release available for Trade Testing

SARS will provide you a further opportunity to test the updated e@syFile™ Employer build before the formal release in mid-September 2024 for the Employer Interim Reconciliation.

The Business Requirements Specification V23.0.0 for the Employer Interim Reconciliation submission period 202408 is available.

We are in the process of moving to a new platform and for testing until 13 September 2024 both the BETA Flex and Replatform versions will be available for testing.

The changes pertaining to the Replatform BETA build are as follows:

• • A change in the look and feel i.e. the screen colours and working of the fields that are now more aligned to all the HTML5 forms SARS currently utilise;
  • The use of a split database i.e. the employer copy and pastes the relevant employer information from the “old” platform to the “new” platform to create an employer database for each reconciliation period;
  • Error messages are no longer displayed in a pop–up but displayed on the particular field the administrator is currently typing in.

The changes pertaining to both the Flex and Replatform BETA builds are as follows:

• • New source code for the saving withdrawal benefit for two-pot system
  • Minor amendments to source code validations

To download the BETA build:

1. 1. Kindly send the public address range of your organisation to [email protected] for whitelisting request. It is recommended that you obtain this information from your IT Network Support team given the dynamic nature of IP addresses based on IT security protocols instituted by your organisation hence the request for public address/range of your organisation instead of your IP address.  The IP address will be whitelisted, and confirmation will be issued.

Note:  where confirmation has been received that this process has been completed, no further request needs to be made.

1. 2. After whitelisting a link will be shared and the BETA build for the Flex and Replatformed version of e@syFile can be downloaded.
   3. The login details will be shared with the coordinator.

During the testing period all online functionality will be disabled to prevent the incorrect submission of test data into the production environment. This means the application will default to offline mode. Certain menu options will also be disabled as a precautionary measure.

SARS will analyse the feedback from the external testers during the test cycle. Please nominate a coordinator to act as liaison and provide the person’s contact details to SARS.

The coordinator must consolidate their organisation’s feedback to and send it to [email protected]. It is preferred that feedback is sent daily.

• 24 May 2024 – SMME Connect edition 8
  The 8th edition of the SMME Connect provides insights to assist small business owners in complying with the Employer Reconciliation (EMP501) obligations during the filing season. The 2024 employer filing season opened on 1 April 2024 and will close on 31 May 2024. SARS urges all employers to adhere to the deadline to avoid any penalties. Employer declaration reconciliation requires an employer to submit an accurate Employer Reconciliation Declaration (EMP501), Employee Tax Certificates [IRP5/IT3(a)s] to be issued and, if applicable, a Tax Certificate Cancellation Declaration (EMP601).

• 26 January 2024 – Provisional Tax – Solar energy tax credit
  

  In order to encourage households to invest in clean electricity generation capacity as soon as possible, a tax credit has been introduced under section 6C of the Income Tax Act for a limited time period.  Section 6C is deemed to have come into operation on 1 March 2023 and applies in respect of years of assessment commencing on or after this date. Furthermore, this section is only available for a period of one year, that is, from 1 March 2023 to 29 February 2024.

  This tax credit applies to any natural person who is liable for personal income tax and who invests in qualifying solar photovoltaic panels (solar PV panels).

  Under this section, a natural person may be eligible for the tax credit on the cost that has been actually incurred in respect of the acquisition of qualifying solar PV panels. The cost relating to other components of a complete solar energy system such as inverters, batteries and supporting structures do not qualify for the tax credit.

  Since the intention is to encourage natural persons to invest in renewable energy, the carrying on of a trade is not a requirement to be eligible to claim this tax credit.

  The Provisional Tax Return (IRP6) has been updated with a “Solar energy tax credit” field to enable provisional taxpayers to take the tax credit into account in determining provisional tax payable for the second provisional period of the 2024 year of assessment.

  For more information, see the updated guide: GEN-PT-01-G01 – Guide for Provisional Tax – External Guide.

SMME Newsletters

• For a complete list of the Connect Newsletters, click here.

About Us

This page is dedicated to Small Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMME) Taxpayers.

The SMME Taxpayers is a Division in SARS that represents the needs and interests of this sub-segment in the tax environment. This will be done through:

• Providing Clarity and Certainty to Taxpayers
• Making it easy for Taxpayers
• Detecting and deterring Taxpayers who do not comply
• Working with and through Stakeholders to improve the tax ecosystem.

The purpose of this page is to share current and upcoming work being done to achieve the above mandates. If you are a SMME Trader or Traveller, see our dedicated SMME Traders and Travellers webpage here.

See our SMME video ‘A guide on small business taxes in South Africa’ here.