Paying UIF through SARS or through uFiling

Whether a South African employer pays UIF on the EMP201 or to the UI Commissioner, what uFiling does, and the monthly declarations due by the seventh.

By Achekam · 11 October 2026 · 4 min read · For Running a business businesses in South Africa

South African employers deal with two different bodies over unemployment insurance. SARS collects the contributions from employers registered with it for payroll. The Department of Employment and Labour, through the Unemployment Insurance Commissioner, runs the Fund, holds the record of who works where, and pays out the benefits.

That split confuses people, especially small employers who come across uFiling, the department's online service, and wonder whether it replaces what they do with SARS. The short answer is that it depends on whether your business is registered with SARS for payroll, and that declaring and paying are two separate jobs. This article untangles which route applies to you and what goes where each month.

Employers registered with SARS pay on the EMP201

SARS says unemployment insurance contributions are payable monthly at 1% by the employer and 1% by the employee, based on remuneration below a certain amount. For employers registered with SARS, SARS adds that contributions must be paid within seven days after the end of the month in which they were deducted, using the EMP201. If that day falls on a weekend or public holiday, payment is due on the last business day before it.

So for most employers, the UIF payment travels with the monthly employer declaration to SARS. There is no separate payment to the Fund.

Who goes to the UI Commissioner instead

SARS describes the employers who pay elsewhere. Its rates page says employers not registered for PAYE or SDL pay their contributions to the Unemployment Insurance Commissioner. Its UIF page is more precise: an employer that does not need to register with SARS for employees' tax, has not voluntarily registered with SARS, and is not liable for SDL must register with the UI Commissioner's office to pay UIF contributions.

All three conditions have to be true. An employer with even one employee liable for normal tax must register with SARS, and then pays UIF there. The Commissioner route is for employers whose staff earn too little for tax and whose payroll is too small for the skills levy, such as a small household or a micro business with one or two low-paid workers.

The full registration picture, including the time limit for registering with SARS, is set out in registering with SARS and the UIF as a new employer.

Declarations to the Commissioner by the seventh

Paying is one job. Declaring is another, and it applies whichever way you pay.

The UI-19 form says an employer must, by the seventh day of each month, give the Unemployment Insurance Commissioner the previous month's employer and employee remuneration details, including new appointments and terminations. The Fund needs that information to know who is covered and what they earned, so that claims can be assessed later.

So an employer that pays through SARS still has a monthly obligation to the Commissioner. The payment goes to SARS; the declaration of who was employed and what they earned goes to the UIF.

What uFiling does

uFiling is the department's online channel for the UIF side. The department says it is a free online service for employers to submit UIF declarations and pay monthly contributions, and that the only requirement to activate it is a valid UIF reference number.

According to the department, uFiling issues monthly UIF declarations automatically, e-mails employers on the 1st of each month, and calculates contributions per employee within the allowable thresholds. For employers with many employees, it allows employee data to be bulk-uploaded using a standard spreadsheet format, with real-time validation and an error report.

Reading that alongside the table above:

• for an employer that pays through SARS, uFiling is a way to handle the declarations;
• for an employer that pays the Commissioner, it can handle both declarations and payments.

The department's page About uFiling describes the service, what it does and how to activate it. That page dates from 2017, so check the uFiling site itself for how the service works today.

What Achekam prepares, and the file it does not produce

In Achekam, the monthly UIF declaration, the UI-19 for an employee who leaves and the COIDA Return of Earnings are prepared from payroll. A person files each one and records the reference. The figures come from the same payroll records as the payslips, so the earnings you declare to the Commissioner match what you paid.

There is a clear limit. The Department of Employment and Labour's own electronic file format, the E03, is not produced. Achekam gives you the prepared declaration; getting it into uFiling or another channel is a step a person takes, by entering it or by preparing the department's upload in the format the department asks for.

Recording the reference after each filing builds a trail you will want later. If a former employee's benefit claim is delayed because the Fund says no declaration was received, the reference shows what you filed and when. The UI-19 for leavers and the COIDA return are covered in more depth in UIF declarations, UI-19s and the COIDA return.

Settling your monthly routine

Check once whether your business is registered with SARS for PAYE or SDL. If it is, pay UIF with the EMP201 and make your declarations to the Commissioner by the seventh, through uFiling or the channel you use. If it is not, pay and declare to the Commissioner. Either way, record each filing in Achekam as you go.

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