What is payroll tax? | FAQs

CAREER ADVICE, FINANCE   |   2 minutes  |   December 1, 2016

Wondering what payroll tax is and how it affects your business’s administration?

Tax is an unavoidable feature in all office and business administrations and you need to ensure you understand it if you want your business to be successful. To find out more about tax law as it pertains to payrolls, watch this video.

Related content: What is Payroll Accounting?


Find out exactly why you need to know more about payroll tax, and, if you want to formalise your skills, find out more about the University of Cape Town Payroll and Tax Administration online short course.

South African taxes include Pay As You Earn (PAYE) tax and Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) contributions.

Tax is a national responsibility, payable by anyone earning an income. In order to streamline the payment of tax to SARS, employers are responsible for paying all taxes upfront from an employee’s gross remuneration, and for recording how much payroll tax has been paid on the employee’s behalf.

Payroll and tax administration expertise can open doors to many varying job opportunities. If you develop your skill set in tax administration you’ll open yourself up to many financial and HR job opportunities that would make you an invaluable asset to your company.

Want to make sure you’re never left behind when it comes to payroll tax law?

Become an expert in payroll administration with the UCT Payroll and Tax Administration online short course. 



Payroll tax is basically what gets deducted from a staff member’s pay. So if someone is being paid a salary or they earn a given amount of wages there is going to be an amount of tax which is going to be attached to that and that is going to be dictated by legislation and tax law. So payroll tax is being able to calculate how much that tax is and to be able to deduct and record it correctly so that it’s shown correctly in the business’s books but also so that it keeps the legislation and technical aspects with SARS happy.