TRA PAYE & SDL E-FILING

TRA PAYE & SDL E-FILING

As you may be aware, TRA has introduced an e-filing system from August 2020, which amongst many other things, requires Entities and Individuals to file their PAYE and SDL returns using this system from the month of August 2020. This means that you will be required to file your returns on or before 7th September 2020 using the new system.

As our valued client, we have taken the following necessary steps to help you achieve this seamlessly:-

  1. We have introduced the following in the Manage Employee screen:-
    • TIN Number (Capture the employee’s TIN Number)
    • Type of employment (Primary or Secondary)
    • SDL Exemption checkbox (under the Salary tab)
    • Employee Status (Permanent or Temporary)
    • Employee residential status (Resident or Non-Resident)
    • New excel reports under One-Click Computation menu
  2. Kindly update your employee information so that the Excel reports will give you the required data to fill the PAYE and SDL reports from TRA e-filing website
  3. Once you have processed salary for August, you will extract the new excel PAYE and SDL reports, and copy the columns required to paste into the TRA files
  4. You can then proceed to upload the excel files into the e-filling system and obtain the Assessment for payment

For your convenience, we will give you some indicators as picked up from the TRA Seminar conducted through Assad Associates on Saturday 22nd August 2020 at the Diamond Jubilee Hall. For those who missed this event, you can watch the video at the following link, courtesy of TRA and Assad Associates

TRA e-Filing Live Seminar


Below is the process to follow for eFiling through SmartERP Platform:

  1. Every Employee must have a TIN Number
  2. TIN Number can be applied online if the employee is already registered with NIDA and has a NIDA card or NIN Number
  3. To apply for TIN Number online, kindly visit tra.go.tz and click on Apply for TIN Number link. Direct link to the TIN application is https://ots.tra.go.tz/
  4. If your Employee is not registered by NIDA and doesn’t have a NIN number, he/she must go to the nearest TRA office and get registered as soon as possible
  5. For non-residential employees, and for employees who currently do not have a TIN Number, you can use the number 999-999-999
  6. Once you have processed your payroll, you will need to login to your e-filing portal.
  7. Kindly seek guidance from your Auditor / Certified Public Accountant / TRA on who is eligible to manage, administer and upload your data
  8. Once point 7 is clear, download the files related to PAYE and SDL
  9. For PAYE, open the downloaded file from TRA and enable editing and enable content, as this is a macro-enabled workbook
  10. Depending on the number of employees you have, as well as any non-full-time Directors whose PAYE you have withheld in this month, you will need to click on add rows at the bottom of the file and add those many numbers of rows. So for example, if you have 20 employees, and 3 non-full-time directors, you will need to add 22 rows because row 1 has already been created
  11. At the top section of this file, you will now choose the month, year and location of your PAYE data by using the pulldown data option (when you select the month, a pulldown menu will appear where you can choose the month of your PAYE return, same with year, and the location is Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar)
  12. Once you have set the correct month, year and location, and have added the number of rows, you can now extract the NEW excel report for PAYE from SmartERP Platform
  13. This new report looks very similar to the file you have downloaded from TRA
  14. Highlight the columns beginning from TIN Number to Other allowances column from SmartERP Platform report and Paste it to the downloaded TRA file
  15. Highlight the Deductions Column from SmartERP Platform report and paste it to the same column in the downloaded TRA file
  16. Please ensure NOT to paste anything in the Yellow columns in TRA file as these contain hidden formulas which will automatically calculate your PAYE obligations
  17. Once you have copy and pasted the employee data, please compare your total PAYE payable from SmartERP and TRA files, and in case of any mismatch, please feel free to reach out to us on our support numbers
  18. When you are satisfied with the results, you can now enter the details of your non-full-time Directors and complete your file
  19. Upon completion of your data capture, you can save the file
  20. Your authorised Declarant (in case of an entity) can now upload the return and obtain the assessment for PAYE payment
  21. For SDL returns, you will follow the same process of extracting the NEW SDL report from SmartERP Platform
  22. You will download the SDL report from TRA e-filing website
  23. You will set the correct month, year and location as explained in point number 11 above
  24. You will copy the columns from Number of employees to Other allowances from SmartERP report and paste to same columns in TRA file
  25. You will copy the Exemption column from SmartERP Platform report to TRA file
  26. You can now compare the SmartERP Platform report and TRA report and in case of any total mismatch, please call us on our support numbers
  27. If the totals are the same, you can save the TRA SDL file, and follow the upload process to obtain your assessment as described in point 20

Disclaimer

This bulletin has been released to assist you to seamlessly process your Payroll and file your returns on time. This not a substitute for:-

  1. Tax Compliance
  2. Auditor or Public Accountant Guidance
  3. E-filling procedure as guided by TRA education department

If you require further confirmation on your PAYE and SDL obligations, we strongly encourage you to seek guidance from your Auditor / Accountant / Tax Consultant on matters relating to

  1. Primary Employment
  2. Secondary Employment
  3. SDL Exemption
  4. Director Fees
  5. Permanent and Temporary Employees
  6. Resident and Non Resident Employees

SmartERP Platform has a comprehensive payroll processing module that will simply compute your payroll based on the data you enter in the system and will apply the statutory rates defined by TRA. Hence it is important that you set your employee statuses correctly in SmartERP Platform to achieve the desired results

For our On-Cloud clients, the new release has already been published on-line, so you can immediately derive the benefits of the new changes.

For our On-premise clients, a release is available for download and update, kindly process this at your earliest.

Should you require any further clarifications or assistance, please feel free to reach out to us on our support lines.