Validation Error: "Employee linked to a SEZ Code"

You are generating the IRP5 files for either the Annual or Interim SARS Submission and instead of creating the IRP5 files the system informs you there is mandatory information outstanding. A report will then print with a list of errors and this error is in the report.

When doing a Validation Run, a warning will print to indicate if an Employee is linked to a Special Economic Zone (SEZ). This will only be a warning and it will not STOP the IRP5 export. Clients can flag their Employees as part of a Special Economic Zone for ETI purposes, which then allows the system to calculate ETI accordingly (ignores age as a qualifying test).

The user must confirm if this is correct in all ETI History periods or should remove it with the ETI Take-on import if it has been incorrectly stated. An ETI take-on, is an import which allows for ETI history to be corrected.

Need more information on how to complete an ETI take-on?

If you have established that some of your employees have been affected, make the ETI corrections, save the csv file and import back into the companies.

For more on the ETI take-on guidelines, click here. The ETI Take-on is the only way to make ETI amendments to ETI history which has been saved on the payroll.

NOTE: To remove the SEZ code from the employee's ETI history, you can import a # to clear the field.

Check if the company is linked to a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) code on the Basic Company Information screen. Employment Tax Incentive Tab.

If the company is linked to an SEZ code, only the following are valid and accepted by SARS:

Linking any employee to an incorrect/invalid SEZ code will result in the ETI calculation ignoring the age of the employee, and ETI will calculate. The system does not validate codes captured by the user. It is the payroll administrators responsibility to ensure that the SEZ code is correct

Determine if the SEZ is correct and if the employees should be linked. If not, remove the SEZ code.

 NOTE:  We were aware of an issue where the SEZ code returns after removing the code on the Basic Company Information Screen - Employment Tax Incentive tab, resulting in the same error when importing the IRP5 file. Should this occur, the work-around is to access the IRP5 file in Notepad and to remove code 2083 (as well as the comma) and the SEZ code from the file. Save the file and reimport into e@syFile.