Warning message: "PLEASE NOTE: Before you process your payroll, please go the Company, Basic Company Information to - Set SDL Percentage to 1.0000%"

This article will provide details on the changes that need to be applied to update the SDL percentage from 0% to 1%, as from September 2020 on Sage VIP Classic and Sage VIP Premier.

South African employers registered for Skills Development Levy will be exempt from the SDL liability and payment of the SDL contribution, as per the Revised Disaster Management Tax Relief Bill and draft Disaster Management Tax Administration Relief Bill published on 1 May 2020.

The effective date for this exemption is 1 May 2020 to 31 August 2020.

The warning message appears the first time you access your payroll company after you completed a Start New Period to September 2020.  

This article will provide the steps to follow to change the SDL percentage to 1%.

NOTE: You are required to amend the SDL Percentage as from September 2020.

If you process a weekly/bi-weekly/other period company, this will need to be applied as from the first week of the month.

Should you activate the SDL calculation in a subsequent week in September, the MTD values will not recalculate, and will require the values to be manually added as an adjustment in the current week.

The following steps must be applied in all RSA payroll companies:

1. From the Main Menu, select Company, and then Basic Company Information.
2. Click on the Period Info (BB) button, and validate that your Current Calendar month is 9, and Current Week Number is 1 (for weekly/bi-weekly/other processing periods)
3. Change the SDL Percentage from 0.0000 to 1.0000
4. When prompted to apply the General Recalculation, select Yes 

CAUTION: Do not untick the 'Period SDL Calculation" box as this will enable the YTD SDL calculation, and include the remuneration for the April to August pay periods, in the current SDL calculation.

The SDL values can be viewed on the EMP201 report.