Youth Employment Incentive available

The Employment Tax Incentive (“Youth Wage Subsidy”) encourages employers to hire young and less experienced work seekers. A direct reduction on cost will also attract the small business community. It reduces an employer’s cost of hiring young people through a cost-sharing mechanism with government, while leaving the wage the employee receives unaffected. This incentive came into effect on 1 January 2014.

In  order to qualify the employer

• must be registered for PAYE,
• cannot be part of government, and
• cannot be a public entity.

Youth Unemployment (Photo credit: ProfAlliRich)

The individual must have a valid South African ID and be between 18 and 29 years old. The employee cannot be a domestic worker or connected to the employer in any way (relative of some nature). One cannot access the incentive scheme if you are in a special economic zone or if the employer is operating inside the special economic zone.

From nought to two thousand Rand there is a fifty percent to the monthly remuneration, from two thousand to four thousand, one thousand Rand is given back. Employers must calculate and claim the incentive on a monthly basis and must identify all the qualifying employees for that month. Obviously, employers will be asked to determine each employee’s monthly remuneration and calculate the amount of the incentive per qualifying employee as per the table which will be supplied on the SARS website.

Please find more details here: [SARS leaflet on the Employment Tax Incentive]