The following is news flash 2024/05 published by the PAGSA on February 13, 2024 regarding COID: Return of Earnings

SUBMISSION OF THE COID RETURN OF EARNINGS

Return of Earnings Notice

The Acting Director-General of the Department of Employment and Labour issued Government Gazette No. 50109 on 12 February 2024.

The notice was issued in terms of section 82 of the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act to communicate the following information regarding the annual Return of Earnings (ROE) that employers must submit to the Fund in respect of the concluded 2023 year of assessment as well as the coming 2024 year of assessment.

1. The submission period will open on 1 April 2024 and close on 30 June 2024
2. Employers are strongly encouraged to submit their ROE’s by using the ROE Online System platform that can be accessed at [email protected]
3. There is a penalty of 10% (presumably of the assessed amount) for late submissions
4. Interest will be charged on overdue accounts
5. Importantly, it is the employer’s duty to inform the Fund of any changes to the nature of the business, closure of the business, physical or other addresses, contact details, etc. within 7 days of the change.

Note that in the Fund’s terminology, ‘2023’ refers to the year in which March falls, not the year in which February falls, as is the case with tax terminology conventions, and indicates a year of assessment that starts on 1 March 2023 and ends on 29 February 2024.

Maximum Earnings Calculation
The rather confusing Government Gazettes that were issued on 31 March 2023 and 30 May 2023 instructed that the ‘annual’ (as opposed to a ‘monthly) method of calculation must be implemented for (only) the 2022 year of assessment.

However, to align with what we understand the Funds intention to be, payrolls were advised to implement the ‘annual’ method of calculation for 2023 in PAGSA Newsflash 2023-28, and in the absence of any guidance from the Fund since then, I suggest that the same method is applied for the 2024 year of assessment.

The issue of the two Gazettes in 2023 without warning or discussion, and too late to be implemented by payrolls for the 2022 year of assessment, resulted in a number of problems which the PAGSA has been trying to resolve with the Fund.

In this regard, we will be meeting with the Fund shortly, and you will be advised of the outcomes.

Regards,
Rob Cooper