This message is for those of you who are employers. SARS has implemented new
procedures in respect of the reconciliation of PAYE, SDL and UIF. In
particular, they now expect us to reconcile twice a year. The first such
reconciliation will cover the 6 months to August 2010, and will probably be
due in October. SARS has decided to go the rather time-intensive route of
requiring that everyone who is employed be registered as a taxpayer and
issued with a tax number whether they earn sufficient to pay tax or not: the
reconciliation process will insist on a tax number for every person
included. My understanding is that as part of the recon process, we will be
able to register those not yet registered, however, it will be helpful to be
proactive about this. For those of you who use our payroll services, please
can you start to find out from your staff what their tax numbers are if you
have not already provided that information to me. If they don't have tax
numbers, it would be good if they can try to register themselves with SARS
especially if they earn more than R60K per year or receive any allowances
(as they are liable to be registered already).

To register with SARS I believe a payslip, a copy of ID and a bank statement
or cancelled cheque or letter from the bank together with an IT77 form
(downloadable from www.dfs.co.za I hope) should suffice. In the unlikely
event that the individual has no bank account, I guess an affidavit
confirming that fact is what SARS would want.

I know I promised some information on travel allowances and haven't
delivered it yet. Since promising it, more changes have been mooted by
treasury, which I need to take into account in my communication. I'll try to
get to it sooner rather than later.