Discontinuation of Debit Pull Transactions on eFiling

[Dave A]

I am concerned by the clause on the Standard Bank site, that payments can take up to 3 working days to complete. How does this affect payment on the last day of the month on SARS side. Will I be fined?

It's going to an FNB account, so my experience is it should reflect in the account of the recipient by the next business day at the latest, but dated as the day of the transaction per your Standard Bank account. But bear this in mind - you must process the payment before 7.00 p.m - transactions after 7.00p.m. will be dated for the following business day.

Personally I'm setting the day before the last day as the deadline once the debit pull option is over, just to play safe. Risking a 10% penalty for the sake of one day just isn't worth it. (Same goes for fighting for the penalty to be waivered too).

[KimH]

I've just submitted my return and used the credit push system.
Works like a charm with Nedbank - I also like the fact that you can select a future dated payment.

All my clients have selected EFT payments, I have recommended that they load payment by Friday to ensure sufficient time to reflect in Sars account by due date.

Although Sars have extended this for another month, I'd rather get my clients used to the new way of doing things as quickly as possible.

I understand the reasons behind the decision to do away with Debit pull, but am concerned that some of my clients are just not going to make the payment on time for whatever reason, at least I knew that when I was loading them, things were paid on time. But, I am a control freak and this is all part of learning to let go I guess

[Christel]

I have "forced" all my clients to do an EFT rather than struggling with the credit push method. All I need to do monthly is to make sure I get all their info at least 3-4 days before the due date, submit the emp201, give them the prn & amount, then they have at least 2 days to effect payment via internet or cheque @ the bank. I can see this will still cause many headaches, as my month end is normally hectic, and now I have to move forward all emp201 processing... and some of my clients are always late to supply me with their wages details... If this was a way of Sars to ensure a nice Christmas bonus for their staff - i.e. all the penalties that will be raised on late payments, then they will succeed.

[Dave A]

I've just submitted my return and used the credit push system.
Works like a charm with Nedbank - I also like the fact that you can select a future dated payment.

Score one for Nedbank.

Unfortunately no such luck as having a future dated payment authorisation option with the Standard Bank My Bills channel. Despite me setting the payment date as 7th November in SARS eFiling, on the My Bills side the bill is shown as presented and due today (5th).

I've loaded a payment on another company dated for the 7th too. Let's see if it's still there waiting to be authorised on the 7th when I actually want it paid.

[Justloadit]

It may be that SARS does not have an account with Standard bank, and that Standard bank has made the adjustment for time for the funds to reach SARS bank account, in order that you avoid penalties for late payment.

[Dave A]

It may be that SARS does not have an account with Standard bank, and that Standard bank has made the adjustment for time for the funds to reach SARS bank account, in order that you avoid penalties for late payment.

More likely the problem is the My Bills functionality is version 1.0 (if even that). You just don't have an option to edit the transaction date on the My Bill side.

Today I've tried to release that second payment loaded. My Bills is telling me it can't access the information.

At this stage there are a few options as to what might be causing the problem:

1. Standard Bank is having trouble connecting to SARS today
2. The credit pull notification has gone AWOL
3. As the credit pull transaction is loaded against a secondary account on my banking profile, Standard Bank isn't using the right bank account number for the lookup on SARS's database

Given that the My Bills functionality for this credit pull transaction method was patched together and rolled out in a rush, and how smoothly things ran yesterday (apart from the transaction date issue) when everything was pretty much in default mode, personally I'm betting it's option 3.

[Dave A]

At this stage there are a few options as to what might be causing the problem:

3. As the credit pull transaction is loaded against a secondary account on my banking profile, Standard Bank isn't using the right bank account number for the lookup on SARS's database

Yep - this definitely seems to be the problem. I've had to resort to making an EFT payment, which due to a quirk in the recipient reference validation routine is going to lead to even more excitement, I think. You can't assign a period in the payment reference - it will only accept eight zeros.

This means the funds will be allocated against the oldest outstanding, which is currently zero because the October 2013 return "has been paid" by a credit pull transaction (which is now not going to be paid in the end ).

I've fiddled around eFiling trying to amend the payment of the 102013 EMP201 - haven't found a way to do it yet.
Any suggestions, anyone?

[duncan drennan]

The only thing that is bugging me about the push system is that on FNB I can't set a future dated payment. The only option is to pay and the money is immediately removed from the account regardless of the day the push was setup on eFiling (and that data does reflect in the push system on FNB's online banking). That means I have to worry about logging on and making the payment on the correct day. My solution to that is just to file the return as late as possible.

This must be a nightmare for accountants doing returns for their clients.....

[Justloadit]

Hi Duncan,

Yes there is, Go to payments, on the left top side of the list of beneficiaries, there is a Menu tab, click on it, the first column near the top, look for 'Scheduled Payments", click that, now look for the "Add" button. To make a scheduled payment, the beneficiary must have been previously set up.

This is a nice automated feature as opposed to a Debit Order. You can set up a scheduled payment every month on a specific date, for the same amount, up to a year in advance. You can stop this payment schedule anytime by deleting it.

[Mike C]

I've fiddled around eFiling trying to amend the payment of the 102013 EMP201 - haven't found a way to do it yet.
Any suggestions, anyone?

Have you tried going to PAYE Maintenance - and re-allocating the money to the correct period? It can only be done if the amount is in credit. Once done it takes aaaaaaages to process (I mean weeks, not days or hours) so once done, don't expect it to show immediately. I have only done it once for a small amount and was not thrilled with the result.

[Dave A]

Have you tried going to PAYE Maintenance - and re-allocating the money to the correct period?

I suspected that might be my only option without actually going into SARS
I was just hoping that I'd missed a trick.

[Dave A]

Have you tried going to PAYE Maintenance - and re-allocating the money to the correct period?

So far the payment I made via EFT isn't reflecting in eFiling, and the credit pull transaction I loaded on eFiling is still attached to the EMP201 return with no obvious way to cancel or detach it - a week after the event.

So far, not so good

[Mike C]

Well I hit the first hassle of the Debit Pull transaction today. Submitted my VAT return, said pay. Received notification that it was sent to the bank, but the bank has not confirmed it yet. Went into the account to approve it ... and it is not there.

Now what? Do I just wait for it to appear? Don't want to make another transaction as that might truly foul things up for SARS.

I also see that an amount that I paid on my EMP201 from Sept is reflected as not having been paid. However it reflects as having been taken from the bank account.

I think that was the last of the "Pull" transactions I did. Oi Vey!

[Dave A]

Well I hit the first hassle of the Debit Pull transaction today. Submitted my VAT return, said pay. Received notification that it was sent to the bank, but the bank has not confirmed it yet. Went into the account to approve it ... and it is not there.

Did you load a debit pull or a credit push transaction, Mike?

I saw the debit pull option was still there last week when I was processing my October EMP 201's last week, but assumed it would lead to a dead end...

I also see SARS is aware of the Standard Bank My Bills problem.

Oi Vey indeed!
Another fine mess you've got us into, SARS!

[Mike C]

Did you load a debit pull or a credit push transaction, Mike?

Oh yes - sorry - it was a credit push transaction. Towards the end of the day I decided to do it again, as nothing was reflecting in the bank account, and this time it went through without a hassle. Now I have two payment reference numbers. Yay! I wonder how long it will take for them to start realising that this will cause confusion sometime down the line?