The nitty gritty of SETA, SDL & SARS
Levies, claims, discretionary grants, B-BBEE skills points — expandable answers, FAQ-style.
Services SETA accredited
Accreditation number 4018. Skills Development Levy contributors can claim on our training where SETA rules allow.
Common topics
All companies with a payroll of more than R500 000 per year are required to pay 1% of their annual salaries to SARS as a contribution to the Skills Development Levy (SDL).
SARS will automatically allocate your company SDL to the SETA they think you should be registered with. It remains your responsibility to double-check that the allocation is correct.
About 20% of your contribution can be claimed back by:
- Submitting your Annual Training Report (ATR) and Workplace Skills Plan (WSP) to the SETA you are registered with, before 30 April annually
- The WSP is not set in stone — deviations can be declared when you submit the next ATR
- Most SETAs require this to be submitted by a qualified Skills Development Facilitator (SDF)
- Keep records of all training: invoices, attendance registers and certification
- Training on the ATR can include formal external training, in-company formal training, peer training, induction, online courses and more
Each SETA has different discretionary grants — funding offered at the SETA’s discretion, often on a first-come, first-served basis.
- Visit your SETA’s website regularly or ask to be on their mailing list
- SETAs often run learnership programmes with discretionary grants
- Learnerships are a strong way to lift your B-BBEE score
- SARS also offers tax incentives of up to R80 000 per learner per year (rules apply)
A portion of the levy supports the NSF. The NSF funds projects that are national priorities in the National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS), and that support the National Skills Authority — including training for unemployed people, non-levy-paying cooperatives, NGOs, community structures and vulnerable groups.
B-BBEE skills development is an important element of B-BBEE: it provides learning opportunities for previously disadvantaged people to develop new skills. Skills development has a weighting of 20 percent with a possible bonus of 5 percent for certain criteria.
For full detail, download the Department of Trade and Industry’s Codes of Good Practice.
Staff Training is a Services SETA-accredited provider. Accreditation number 4018. We help levy-paying employers navigate unit standards, skills programmes and learnerships within the rules of the system.
Back to learnerships overview · Skills programme vs learnership
Jargon (selected)
- ABET
- Adult Basic Education and Training
- ATR
- Annual Training Report
- B-BBEE
- Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment
- ETQA
- Education and Training Quality Assurance
- NQF
- National Qualifications Framework
- NSF
- National Skills Fund
- RPL
- Recognition of Prior Learning
- SAQA
- South African Qualifications Authority
- SDF
- Skills Development Facilitator
- SDL
- Skills Development Levy
- SETA
- Sector Education and Training Authority
- WSP
- Workplace Skills Plan
For a longer glossary, see our learnership FAQs & jargon page.
Need an SDF-friendly conversation?
We can walk through unit standards, skills programmes and learnership options against your levy and B-BBEE goals.