You are already paying the Skills Development Levy. The question is whether you are getting anything back for it. Done properly, skills development returns part of your levy in grants, earns you B-BBEE points, and builds a better-trained workforce — done badly, it is money out the door.
If your payroll is above R500,000 a year you pay the 1% Skills Development Levy, and your Workplace Skills Plan (WSP) and Annual Training Report (ATR) are due to your SETA by 30 April every year. Miss it and you forfeit your grant.
Submit a compliant WSP and ATR and you recover 20% of your levy as a mandatory grant, and can apply for discretionary grants that fund learnerships and bursaries.
Skills development is one of the highest-weighted priority elements on the B-BBEE scorecard. Properly planned and reported skills spend turns a cost into scorecard points.
If your annual payroll exceeds R500,000 you pay the Skills Development Levy to SARS every month at 1% of total remuneration, declared on your EMP201 alongside PAYE and UIF. That money does not disappear — it is split between your SETA and the National Skills Fund, and a portion of it is claimable back by you.
The mechanism is simple but strictly enforced:
These are not one-page forms. A compliant submission needs an accurate employee profile broken down by occupational category, race, gender and disability; the training you plan for the coming year mapped to real occupational codes; a report on the training you actually delivered in the past year with evidence; and, where you employ 50 or more people, consultation with a training committee that includes worker representation.
The most common reasons submissions get rejected or queried are mundane and avoidable: employee data that does not reconcile with what SARS has on the EMP501, training listed without proof it happened, missing signatures from the training committee, an SDF who was never formally appointed, or the organisation not being registered with the correct SETA in the first place. We handle all of that.
Skills development is a priority element on the B-BBEE scorecard, which means falling short of the sub-minimum on it discounts your entire recognition level by one — not just the points on that line. It is one of the heaviest-weighted elements available, and unlike ownership it is entirely within your control.
What matters is that spend is planned before it happens, directed at the right beneficiaries, and evidenced properly. Training that was never recorded, or aimed at the wrong category of employee, earns nothing on the scorecard even though the money was spent. Learnerships in particular do double duty — they carry their own scorecard points and can attract both discretionary grant funding and a SARS tax allowance. Planned together with the WSP, the same rand can serve compliance, capability and your scorecard at once.
Skills development works best as a rhythm rather than an April scramble:
Skills development is facilitated by Nicolene Schoonbee, who leads our labour law practice and facilitates training and skills development. It pairs naturally with our Training & Development courses, which can form part of your reported skills spend.
The WSP plans the training for the year ahead; the ATR reports what was actually done. Both go to your SETA and unlock your grant and B-BBEE points.
By 30 April each year. Miss it and you forfeit that year’s mandatory grant.
If your annual payroll is above R500,000, yes — 1% of remuneration, monthly, to SARS.
Yes — 20% of your levy as a mandatory grant on submission, plus discretionary grants for learnerships.
If you are paying SDL but not submitting a WSP/ATR, you are leaving grants and B-BBEE points on the table. Let us fix that before the next 30 April deadline.
Request a skills development consultation
This page is general information and is not legal, tax or B-BBEE verification advice for your specific business.