Urgent – Resubmission of 2017 Employer Annual Reconciliation Declaration (EMP 501) and Updated IRP5 Certificates

Jul 18, 2017 | Taxation Blog

Urgent message from SARS:

RE-SUBMISSION OF 2017 EMPLOYER ANNUAL RECONCILIATION DECLARATION (EMP 501) AND IRP5/IT3(a) CERTIFICATES

Dear Employer

We kindly request your cooperation in the matter described below.

BACKGROUND

With the implementation of the Retirement Reform requirements, information code 4582 (remuneration portion of income included under income codes: 3701 Travel Allowance, 3702 Re-imbursive Travel Allowance, 3802/3816 Use of Employer provided Vehicle) and its value were omitted from the submission file created by e@syFile™ Employer.

This resulted in IRP5/IT3(a) certificates containing codes 3701, 3702, 3802 and/or 3816 but omitting code 4582 and its value being received by SARS. As a result, code 4582 and its value were not pre-populated on employees’ Personal Income Tax Returns (ITR12s).
This omission may impact the calculation of the maximum allowable deduction in respect of retirement fund contributions.

SOLUTION

The updated version 6.7.5 of e@syFile™ Employer, recently implemented, addressed this problem. However, IRP5/IT3(a)s with any of the income codes mentioned above which were submitted to SARS prior to the implementation of this updated version of e@syFile™, should be re-submitted.

You have been identified as one of the employers whose IRP5/IT3(a)s with codes 3701, 3702, 3802 and/or 3816, received by SARS, do not include code 4582 and its value.
You are requested to re-submit your Employer Annual Reconciliation Declaration (EMP501) and Employees Tax Certificates [IRP5/IT3(a)s] documents to SARS as soon as possible.

  • When you access the e@syFile™ software, you will be advised that an update is
    available and reminded to back up your database before updating to version 6.7.5.
  • Once the backup and updating processes have been completed, please perform
    a Full Resubmission from the Utilities menu on e@syFile™.
    This will correct IRP5/IT3(a)s received by SARS without code 4582 and its value.
    (There is no need to recapture any data but to merely resubmit the file you
    originally created.)

(only employees whose IRP5/IT3(a)s reflect codes 3701, 3702, 3802 and/or 3816)

EXPLANATION TO EMPLOYEES

It is important that you do your re-submission as soon as possible to prevent affected employees from receiving incorrect Income Tax Notices of Assessment when SARS process their ITR12s during the current Tax Season.

Employees who have not yet submitted their 2017 ITR12s should be advised as follows:

  • Affected employees should wait at least 24 hours after the successful re-
    submission of the IRP5/IT3(a)s by you before submitting their ITR12s.
  • Once your re-submission is completed successfully and these employees request
    their ITR12s via eFiling, the Refresh IRP5/IT3(a) data option on eFiling should
    be used to ensure that the latest version of the IRP5/IT3(a)s are pre-populated on
    their ITR12s.
  • Employees may then complete and submit their 2017 ITR12s via eFiling or at a
    SARS branch.

Employees who have already submitted their 2017 ITR12s prior to your resubmission should be advised as follows:

It must be noted that the adding of code 4582 will not impact all assessments already processed. The inclusion of code 4582 may therefore not necessarily result in a change in the tax liability.

  • Affected employees should wait at least 24 hours after the successful re-
    submission of the IRP5/IT3(a)s by you before taking any action.
  • Once your re-submission is completed successfully –
    – employees who submitted 2017 ITR12s via eFiling should submit a Request
    for Correction via eFiling
    – in certain circumstances, eFiling will not allow taxpayers to submit a
    Request for Correction – in such cases employees should submit a Notice of
    Objection (NOO) together with relevant material
    – employees who submitted 2017 ITR12s at a SARS branch should again
    approach a SARS branch for assistance to consider submitting a Request for
    Correction or Notice of Objection (NOO) where applicable.

We appreciate your support to re-submit your Employer Annual Reconciliation documents and to inform your affected employees accordingly.

Sincerely
THE SOUTH AFRICAN REVENUE SERVICE
July 2017

Please contact our tax department should you have any queries in this regard.