e@syfile-employer not so easy this year

[Dave A]

Has SARS ever stuffed around with the e@sy-file employer software this year. I'm finding it to be a real problem.

First off, you capture a whole lot more employee detail than you did in the past. Good news is at least this info will be carried through to future tax years so we don't have to go through that particular misery year after year capturing the same detail. But there's a snag...

The program reports that from 2011 all mandatory employee information will have to be completed. For the most part not a problem by the looks of things - except everyone is going to have an income tax number!!! I didn't realise that people earning SITE, or earning under the tax threshold had to even register for income tax. Now you won't even be able to issue an IT3a without it.

In the past I just put in their ID number and that was fine.

OK - that's a problem coming for the future then - every single working citizen is going to have to register and get an income tax number. I suspect the queues are going to be beserk.

But wait - the problem has already arrived!! Try adding a certificate to an employee where you don't have the income tax number for the 2010 tax year - you can't do it! No income tax number - no IT3a or IRP5.

With the EMP501 deadline looming at the end of this month, I can see a big problem coming.

[Dave A]

Well, I finally managed to get hold of SARS on this adding-a-certificate problem. (I tried the other day, but after a couple of hours on hold I gave up).

The answer for 2010 certificates is to insert ten zeros in the income tax number field. But from 2011 all employees have to be registered for income tax - even those earning under the tax threshold!

[Dave U]

OK - that's a problem coming for the future then - every single working citizen is going to have to register and get an income tax number. I suspect the queues are going to be beserk.

In future, employers will be able to register their employees for income tax by using e@syfile and also check whether an employee is registered in case the employee doesn't know. Not sure if there will be a legal onus on employers to do so, but at least it means there's no danger of missing the deadline just because you're waiting for an employee to get himself registered.

[brown]

I've taken the liberty to fill in the IT-77 forms for all my employees to make my life easier... I just had to make one trip to SARS. Luckily I din't even have to sit through the whole process. Since I was applying for more than 20 people, they processed in the back office, but employees are a nightmare... Till this today, I am still waiting for the letters. I should have used their Work addresses. Remember to get them to sign the letter of authorization though