The obligations attach the moment you have an employee, not when you get round to registering. Doing it before the first payday is straightforward; doing it afterwards means backdating, penalties and reconciliations.
What you register for
With SARS, as an employer, so you can deduct employees' tax and pay it over. You receive a PAYE reference number and monthly filing obligations.
For UIF, deducted from the employee and matched by you. Note that UIF is administered by the Department of Employment and Labour as well as collected via SARS, and there are declarations to submit — which is a detail that catches employers out.
With the Compensation Fund, for workplace injury cover. This produces the letter of good standing that customers and site operators routinely ask for.
For the skills development levy, once your payroll passes the threshold.
They are separate systems
Registering with one does not register you with the others, and none of them will tell you that another is outstanding. Do all of them at the start and note the filing dates for each.
Check whether a council covers you
Bargaining councils and sectoral determinations set minimum wages and conditions for particular industries, and where one applies it may bring additional registrations, levies and returns.
Find out before you hire rather than after. Councils audit, and arrears are calculated from when the obligation began.
Then file monthly, every month
The monthly declaration and payment, and the reconciliations at intervals through the year. These are the returns that determine your tax compliance status — which is what customers check before awarding you work.
An employer who has staff but is behind on employer filings frequently discovers it at the moment a large customer runs a compliance check.
Even for one part-time person
The obligations are not waived because the person is part-time, casual, or a family member. Thresholds affect what is deducted; they do not generally remove the requirement to be registered and to declare.
Where you genuinely are not sure whether somebody is an employee at all, resolve that question first — it determines everything else.
Get help with the setup
A bookkeeper or payroll provider will do the registrations and the monthly filings inexpensively, and for most small employers that is money well spent. The registrations are a once-off; the deadlines recur forever.
General guidance, not tax or legal advice. Thresholds, rates and processes change; confirm the current requirements with SARS and the Department of Employment and Labour.