PAYE, UIF and SDL owed at year end

Why a South African client owes PAYE, UIF and SDL at year end, how to agree the payable to the final EMP201, and where it sits in the statements.

By Achekam · 11 October 2026 · 4 min read · For Accountants & audit firms in South Africa

Every South African employer ends its financial year owing SARS money it has already taken from its staff. The last month's salaries have been paid, the deductions have been made, and the payment to SARS falls due in the following month. On the balance sheet date, that money is a liability.

It is one of the smallest notes in a set of statements and one of the easiest to get wrong. The figure in the trial balance is often a control account that has collected a year of mispostings, late payments and penalties. This article explains why the balance exists, what it should consist of, and how to prove it.

Why the final month is still owed

SARS says employers must submit the EMP201 and pay PAYE, SDL and UIF within 7 days after the end of each month, and that if the 7th falls on a weekend or public holiday, payment is due by the last business day before it. SARS's employer guide says the same: employees' tax, UIF contributions and SDL must be paid within seven days after the end of the month in which they were deducted or became due.

So at year end, the deductions and contributions for the final month are almost always unpaid. A client with a February year end pays February's PAYE, UIF and SDL in early March, after the reporting date. The amount owed on the last day of February is the amount on February's EMP201.

If the trial balance shows more than one month's worth, something else is in the account: an earlier month that was paid late, a payment that SARS allocated elsewhere, or a penalty that was posted to the wrong place.

Whose money it is

The balance combines two kinds of obligation, and it helps to keep them apart when reviewing it.

The employee portions are money the client holds on behalf of SARS. SARS's employer guide adds that an employer who fails to deduct the full amount of employees' tax or UIF is personally liable for the shortfall. A payroll that under-deducted during the year therefore leaves the client owing more than the payslips show, and that shortfall is a cost of the client, not of the employees.

The accounting

The employer's own contributions follow the same logic as other employee costs. Under IAS 19, when an employee has rendered service during a period, the entity recognises the contribution payable to a defined contribution plan in exchange for that service as a liability, an accrued expense, and as an expense. That is the model for a client's retirement fund contributions owed at year end, and the same accrual logic applies to the statutory contributions owed for the final month: the service has been rendered, the cost belongs to the year, and the payment comes later.

Investopedia explains that accrued expenses are shown on the balance sheet as current liabilities because they are obligations to make future cash payments. A payroll payable due within days of year end is about as current as a liability gets.

In the statements, it usually sits within trade and other payables, with the note showing it as a separate line, for example "PAYE, UIF and SDL payable". If it is material, or if it includes arrears or penalties, show those separately rather than burying them.

Agreeing the balance to the EMP201

The proof is simple to describe:

1. Take the final month's EMP201 as submitted.
2. Compare its PAYE, UIF and SDL totals with the year-end balances in the control accounts.
3. Explain any difference: an earlier month unpaid, a payment not yet allocated, a penalty or interest.
4. Check the SARS statement of account for the PAYE number to confirm earlier months are settled.
5. Confirm that the final month was paid after year end, in the amount declared.

Where the client claims the Employment Tax Incentive, compare the payable with the net amount on the EMP201 after the offset, not the gross.

The staff costs note should tie back to the same payroll records; building the staff costs note from payroll covers that side.

When the payroll runs in Achekam

If your firm runs the client's payroll in Achekam, two things make this reconciliation shorter.

First, Achekam prepares the monthly EMP201 figures and PDF, and the IRP5 and IT3(a) certificates, from approved pay runs. A person at the firm files them on SARS eFiling and records the reference in Achekam, so the final month's declaration and its filing reference sit together.

Second, posting an approved run writes a wages journal into the firm's own books, or into a client's books only when those books are on Achekam and the firm is appointed to them. In that case the payroll payable in the client's ledger is built from the same approved runs as the EMP201. For a client whose books are elsewhere, posting is refused, and no screen was found that exports the wages journal instead, so the journal has to be captured in the client's own system by hand and the reconciliation above matters even more.

The annual reconciliation is a separate exercise; see IRP5, IT3(a) and the EMP501.

Check the deadline at the source

SARS's page on completing the monthly employer declaration (EMP201) sets out what the return contains and when it and the payment are due. Use it when explaining to a client why the year-end balance is not an error, and to confirm the due date for the month after year end.

General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.