The PAYE and SDL holiday during the Covid-19 lockdown have expired. According to SARS, the outstanding PAYE payable must be paid in 6 monthly instalments. What is the situation regarding the SDL? Do taxpayers have to pay back the SDL is 6 monthly instalme
Author: The Payroll Authors Group of South Africa
Important:
This answer is based on tax law year ending 28 February 2021.
Answer:
The SDL was an exemption from the payment of SDL for the periods 1/5/2020 to 31/8/2020. This means that it was not a payment holiday as with the PAYE deferral relief. This exemption actually means that all qualifying employers does not need to pay SDL for the relevant months. No instalment will be applicable as the Act exempt employers from paying SDL for these months. Exemption from skills development levy 11. (1) Any employer, as defined in section 1 of the Skills Development Levies Act, 1999 (Act No 9 of 1999) must be exempt from liability and payment, in terms of section 3 of that Act, of the levy, as defined in section 1 of that Act. (2) Subsection (1) is deemed to have come into operation on 1 May 2020 and applies until 31 August 2020. The SDL payment holiday is applicable to the EMP201 for the months May – Aug 2020, meaning payments due on 7th June to 7th September 2020. SARS will default the SDL field on the EMP201 on efiling programmatically to zero for the May – Aug EMP201’s. This is applicable to all employers register for SDL irrespective of their turnover, provided that they are tax compliant. All employers who are registered for SDL automatically qualify for the SDL exemption.