Statutory Rate Data

South African payroll depends on rates that change annually: PAYE brackets, rebates, medical tax credits, the UIF cap, the SDL rate, ETI bands, the reimbursive travel rate, the retirement-deduction cap, the COIDA earnings cap and the lump-sum tax tables.

Two layers: the rate pack and the Desk records

za_local keeps rates in date-effective statutory rate packs — JSON files at za_local/sa_setup/data/statutory_rates_<YYYY>.json, one per tax year. The payroll engine (za_local.utils.statutory_rates) resolves the correct pack for each payroll date, so calculations always use the rates in force on that date rather than hard-coded numbers.

From these packs the app also seeds Desk-reviewable records so practitioners can see and audit the values:

Income Tax Slab — PAYE brackets for the year.
Tax Rebates and Medical Tax Credit — primary/secondary/tertiary rebates and medical scheme credits.
ETI Slab — Employment Tax Incentive bands (first 12 months / second 12 months).
Travel Allowance Rate — reimbursive rate per km and fixed-allowance inclusion.

What to verify per tax year

Income Tax Slab — open the slab for the active year (e.g. South Africa 2026-2027). Confirm the bracket thresholds and rates and the effective-from date (1 March of the tax year).
Tax Rebates and Medical Tax Credit — confirm the primary/secondary/tertiary rebates and the main-member / first-dependant / additional-dependant medical credits for the year.
ETI Slab — confirm the first-12-months and second-12-months bands and amounts.
Travel Allowance Rate — confirm the reimbursive rate per km for the year.
Rate pack resolves — in the console, get_rate_pack(<a date in the year>)["tax_year"] returns the expected year.

Linking the tax slab to employees

Each employee's Salary Structure Assignment carries an Income Tax Slab link. It must point at the slab for the tax year of the payroll period being processed. If you process across a tax-year boundary, create a new assignment from 1 March linked to the new year's slab. See Salary Structures & Assignments.

Prior tax years

The app ships rate packs for recent prior years as well, so back-dated calculations (a prior-year EMP501 or a re-issued IRP5) resolve instead of failing. Some annually-gazetted figures in prior-year packs are carried forward and flagged for verification in the pack's verification_notes — confirm those against the original SARS/Department of Employment & Labour notices before relying on historical recalculations.

Rolling forward to a new year

When a new Budget is announced, add the new year's rate pack and supporting records. The full procedure is in Annual Statutory Update.

Review the SARS Payroll Codes that drive IRP5 grouping.