Where our numbers come from

Principles

Three rules govern every number we publish. First, primary sources only, meaning South African Revenue Service publications, Department of Employment and Labour notices and the Government Gazette. Second, the verification date is displayed inline, so a reader can see at a glance whether a number is current. Third, if a rate changes between verification cycles we update the source data before we update any downstream page, so the calculator and the guides never contradict each other.

Sources

• SARS tax tables, sars.gov.za/tax-rates/employers. PAYE brackets and rebates, UIF employer/employee contribution rate, SDL rate and the R500 000 annual payroll threshold that triggers SDL liability. Reviewed on the first working day of each month and immediately after every SARS budget speech.
• SARS PAYE guide (Guide for Employers), sars.gov.za. Deduction sequence, medical tax credit, tax directive rules. Reviewed each tax year (1 March).
• Department of Employment and Labour, labour.gov.za. UIF employer and employee 1% split, UIF earnings ceiling, sectoral determinations, BCEA amendments and CCMA jurisdiction notes.
• UIF Commissioner circulars, labour.gov.za. Ceiling adjustments and contribution rule changes.
• Compensation Fund (COIDA), labour.gov.za. Annual assessment tariff schedule, industry class rates and the earnings ceiling used for COIDA calculation.
• Government Gazette, gov.za/documents/gazettes. Statutory notices of rate and ceiling changes, national minimum wage adjustments, sectoral determinations.
• National Minimum Wage Commission, labour.gov.za. Annual national minimum wage and sectoral minima published in March.
• South African Reserve Bank, resbank.co.za. Official ZAR reference rates used only for illustrative rand-euro-dollar-pound conversions in the guides. Not used for the fixed-fee price, which is not FX-derived.

What we verify, and how

• UIF: 1% employee + 1% employer, capped against the current UIF earnings ceiling. Verified against the latest UIF Commissioner circular and cross-checked against the SARS PAYE guide.
• SDL: 1% of leviable payroll, only for employers whose annual gross payroll exceeds the R500 000 threshold. Verified against the SARS Employer guide.
• COIDA: Employer-only assessment, calculated against the annual COIDA earnings ceiling and the industry class rate. Verified against the Compensation Fund tariff notice for the current assessment year.
• PAYE: Progressive brackets, rebates and thresholds as published in the SARS tax tables for the current tax year (1 March to 28/29 February). Rebate and medical tax credit values are read directly from the SARS tables, not derived.
• National minimum wage: Read from the annual notice published by the National Minimum Wage Commission. Sectoral minima override the national floor where they exist.

Cadence

Statutory rates are re-verified on the first working day of each month. The tax year change (1 March) and the annual budget speech trigger an out-of-cycle review the same day. Competitor list prices, used only in comparison pages, are captured with a URL, a timestamp and a screenshot; the verification date is displayed inline via the LastVerified badge next to each competitor row.

Fixed-fee disclosure

Our EOR fee is a fixed monthly amount of €350, $399 or £299 depending on billing currency. These three prices are not FX-derived. We do not adjust the fee when the ZAR-EUR pair moves. Statutory contributions (UIF, SDL, COIDA, PAYE) are calculated in rand from live SARS and DEL rates, then billed at the SARB reference rate on the invoice date. The calculator on this site makes the same split visible line by line.

Responsibility

Verification is owned by the editorial team at Expand to South Africa and reviewed each quarter against the current Government Gazette notices and the SARS tax-year publications. When a source updates, the source data file is updated first, the change log entry is added, and the affected pages and calculator are regenerated in the same release.

Corrections policy

If you find a number on this site that does not match the current SARS or DEL publication, we want to know. Send the page URL, the number and the source you are comparing it against to [email protected] and we will respond within two working days. Material corrections are logged below with the date of the fix. For quotes, calculator outputs or contracts affected by a superseded number, book a call and we will reissue.

Change log

Date	What changed	Reviewer
June 2026	Site initial publish. UIF ceiling (R17 712 monthly / R177.12 per side per month at 1%), SDL 1% above R500 000 annual payroll, COIDA employer-only assessment against current tariff notice, and PAYE brackets for the 2026/2027 tax year verified against SARS and DEL primary sources.	Editorial