The annual skills levy cycle runs from 01 April to 31 March each year and for the 2017/2018 cycle, eligible companies need to submit their Workplace Skills Plan (WSP) and Annual Training Report (ATR) to the relevant Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA) by 26 April 2018 to qualify to be rated on the Skills Development Element of the B-BBEE scorecard.
The B-BBEE Act requires that Qualifying Small Enterprise’s (QSE’s) with turnover above R10m and Generic Enterprise’s with turnover above R50mil, must submit a WSP and ATR to the relevant SETA to qualify to be rated on the Skills Development Element of the B-BBEE scorecard.
Important considerations:
- The Skills Development Levies Act requires companies with a payroll exceeding R500 000 per annum to register with SARS to pay the Skills Development Levy.
- This levy is calculated at 1% of total payroll, paid monthly as part of Employee Tax.
- 5% of the contribution to SARS is made available for claims by the relevant SETA
- This percentage is split into two types of claims, the Mandatory Grant of 20% and Discretionary Grant of 49.5%.
- Mandatory Grant is claimed by submitting an annual Workplace Skills Plan (WSP) and Annual Training Report (ATR) before end of April each year.
- Discretionary Grant opens once a year for employers to apply for additional funding of their formal training, such as learnerships, internships, bursaries, apprenticeships, etc.