uFiling, and the monthly UIF declaration employers forget

Two duties, not one

• Contribute. One percent of remuneration deducted from the employee, one percent paid by the employer, both capped at the ceiling of R17 712 a month.
• Declare. Submit the employee details, remuneration and hours to the UIF every month, and record every termination with its reason code.

Where the money goes depends on your SARS status. An employer registered for employees’ tax or the skills development levy pays UIF to SARS on the EMP201 within seven days after the end of the month. An employer not registered for those pays the UIF directly, which in practice means uFiling. Note the split that trips people up: SARS-registered employers may submit their declarations on uFiling but may not make the payment there.

Registering

1. Commercial employers need the owner’s or director’s identity document or passport, the company registration documents, and the employees’ identity numbers and bank details.
2. Domestic employers need their own thirteen-digit identity number, an email address, their bank details and the worker’s identity number. Anyone who employs a domestic worker for more than twenty-four hours a month must register, including households.
3. Channels: uFiling, BizPortal at the same time as registering a company, the manual forms, or a labour centre.
4. Activate the account and capture your employees before the first declaration is due.

The monthly declaration

The declaration is made on the UI-19 or its electronic equivalent, and it is due by the seventh of each month. It records new appointments, each employee’s remuneration and hours, and every termination with the correct code: dismissal, resignation, retrenchment, contract expiry, death, retirement or maternity leave. Small and domestic employers are allowed to declare changes as they occur plus an annual confirmation, but the monthly discipline is what keeps the record clean.

The termination code matters more than employers realise. It decides whether the former employee can claim at all, and the wrong code, or a blank one, sends them back to you for a corrected declaration at the worst moment of their year.

Who is excluded

• Employees working under 24 hours a month for that employer.
• Learners under the Skills Development Act.
• National and provincial government employees.
• Foreign workers on a contract that requires them to be repatriated at the end.
• Commission-only earners.

Everyone else is in, including part-time staff, casuals over the hours threshold, domestic workers and gardeners, and directors who draw a salary.

What actually goes wrong

• Paying but not declaring. The most damaging one. Money in, no record, no benefit for the employee.
• Contributing on the full salary above the ceiling. Over-deducting from higher earners, which is money out of their pocket that the Fund will not credit.
• Never registering the domestic worker. Households are employers, and this is the single largest gap in the system.
• Wrong termination codes. Marking a retrenchment as a resignation blocks the claim.
• Assuming SARS handles the declaration. The EMP201 pays the money; it does not tell the Fund who your employees are.
• Letting arrears build. Interest and penalties are charged on late or unpaid contributions, and uFiling cannot take a penalty payment, so it has to be arranged with the Fund.

Frequently asked questions