Payroll records an employer must keep
The payroll records SARS expects a South African employer to keep, from the remuneration register to EMP201 copies, and how long to keep them.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Running a business businesses in South Africa
Payroll produces paper, or its digital equivalent, every single month: payslips, declarations, payment confirmations, starter forms, tax certificates. Most of it is looked at once and filed. Some of it is filed nowhere at all, because the payroll software "has it".
Then a former employee disputes a deduction from three years ago, or SARS asks how a particular month's PAYE was worked out, and the business discovers that "the software has it" was never checked. This article sets out the payroll records SARS expects a South African employer to keep, for how long, why keeping them is a legal duty in its own right, and how to organise them so the answer to any question is a few clicks away.
The register SARS expects
SARS's employer guide says an employer must keep a register of each employee's:
- remuneration;
- employees' tax deducted;
- UIF contributions; and
- income tax reference number.
The guide says this register must be kept for five years from the date the return is submitted. It is the core payroll record: for any employee and any month, it shows what they were paid, what was taken off and which tax number it was reported against.
A register does not need to be a single ledger book. What matters is that the information exists for every employee for every period, and that it can be produced. SARS's Guide for Employers in respect of Employees' Tax (2027) describes the register alongside the employer's other duties, and it is worth checking your records against it once a year.
Every EMP201, for five years
SARS also says copies of all EMP201 declarations submitted must be kept for five years. That means each monthly declaration as it was submitted, not a later recalculation of what it should have said.
More generally, SARS says a person who has submitted a return must keep records for five years from the date the return was submitted. The EMP201 copies, the payment confirmation for each month and the supporting payroll reports belong together for that period. How these periods interact with other tax records and the Companies Act is covered in how long to keep tax and company records.
What to keep, at a glance
| Record | What it shows | Keep for |
|---|---|---|
| Remuneration register | Pay, PAYE, UIF and tax number per employee per period | Five years from the date the return is submitted |
| EMP201 copies | What was declared each month | Five years |
| Payment confirmations | What was paid to SARS and when | With the return they relate to |
| Payslips | What each employee was told they were paid | With the register |
| IRP5 and IT3(a) certificates | Annual totals per employee | With the reconciliation they support |
Keeping records is itself a legal duty
It is tempting to see record-keeping as good housekeeping. SARS treats it as more than that. SARS says failing to deduct, withhold or pay UIF contributions to SARS, or failing to keep records, is an offence under Chapter 17 of the Tax Administration Act, punishable by a fine or imprisonment.
So an employer that paid every cent correctly but cannot produce the records has still failed in a legal duty. The records are also the employer's main defence if a shortfall is alleged: without them, there is nothing to show that the deductions were right.
Employment law has record-keeping rules of its own, separate from SARS's. Ask your adviser how they apply to your business alongside the tax rules above.
Payslips and proof they were sent
Payslips are part of the record in two ways: they show what the employee was told, and the fact that they were issued is itself something an employer may need to prove. What a payslip must show is covered in what a South African payslip must show.
In Achekam, payslips are PDFs carrying the business's logo and details. They can be downloaded or e-mailed one per person, and an employer setting sends them automatically when a run is approved, with a delivery log. E-mailing needs an e-mail service configured on the server. The delivery log is the useful record here: if an employee says they never received a payslip, it shows when it was sent and to which address.
Certificates and EMP201 PDFs in one place
At year end, Achekam prepares IRP5 and IT3(a) certificates from issued payslips, and they download as PDFs. A certificate cannot be issued while an employee's ID or tax number is missing, which also tells you, before SARS does, where the register is incomplete.
Downloaded certificates and EMP201 PDFs need a home. Achekam's Document Centre is a folder-based store where a business uploads files or whole folders, previews, downloads, renames, moves, tags, archives and searches them, and a new version of a file keeps the earlier ones. A simple structure works well:
- One folder per tax year.
- Inside it, one folder per month holding that month's EMP201 PDF, SARS's reference and the payment confirmation.
- A year-end folder holding the certificates and the reconciliation.
- Tags for anything unusual, such as a correction or a query from SARS.
Because a new version keeps the earlier ones, a corrected document sits beside the original rather than replacing it, which is exactly what you want if anyone later asks what was submitted first.
A once-a-year records check
Pick one employee and one month from two or three years ago, and try to produce their register entry, payslip, the EMP201 for that month and proof of payment. If you can do it quickly, your records are in order. If you cannot, fix the gap now, while the people who know where things are still work for you.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
