March 31, 2026 is 17 days away. You have two and a half weeks. The question this week is simple: do you know if your numbers are right?
Not whether you intend to file. Not whether you have a plan. Whether the actual figures in your payroll records — PAYE, NIS, NHT, Education Tax — are correct for every single employee, for every single month of the 2025/26 tax year.
If you can't answer that with confidence, this is the week to fix it. Not next week. This week.
Week 2 Theme: Check Your Numbers
Last week was about gathering documents — pulling your S02 receipts, locating your records. This week is about verification. You need to sit down with those records and confirm the math is right before you start filling out annual returns.
Here's the thing plenty of employers discover too late: you can file on time and still get hit with penalties if the numbers on your SO1 don't match what TAJ has on record from your monthly S02 remittances. Filing with wrong figures is sometimes worse than filing late, because it triggers an audit rather than just a penalty.
So before you touch a single return form, check your numbers.
The Rates That Must Be Right
Every deduction in your payroll should have been calculated using these exact rates for the 2025/26 tax year. If even one rate was wrong for even one month, your annual totals will be off:
| Deduction | Employee Rate | Employer Rate | What to Watch For | |---|---|---|---| | PAYE | Progressive | N/A | Threshold is J$1,799,376/year (J$149,948/month) for 2025/26 | | NIS | 3% | 3% | Subject to the NIS wage ceiling | | NHT | 2% | 3% | Applies to gross emoluments — no ceiling | | Education Tax | 2.25% | 3.5% | Applied after NIS and NHT deductions | | HEART/NSTA | — | 3% | Employer-only; often missed by small businesses |
The PAYE threshold is the one that trips people up most. For the 2025/26 fiscal year being reconciled, J$1,799,376 per year means the first J$149,948 per month is tax-free (this rises again to J$1,902,360/year from April 1, 2026 for the new 2026/27 tax year). If you have employees earning close to that threshold — say J$130,000 or J$140,000 monthly — a small error in how the threshold was applied could mean you under-deducted or over-deducted PAYE every single month. Multiply that by 12 months, and the discrepancy on your SO1 will be noticeable.
Check your PAYE for free before it's too late. Use the PayrollJamaica calculator right now. Enter any employee's gross pay and see exactly what the correct deductions should be. If the calculator's figures don't match your records, you have a problem to fix — and better to find it now than have TAJ find it for you.
NHT: The Compliance Area Employers Overlook
Most employers pay close attention to PAYE and NIS. NHT? That's the one that slips through the cracks.
The National Housing Trust contribution is straightforward — 2% from the employee, 3% from the employer, applied to total gross emoluments with no ceiling. But "straightforward" doesn't mean employers always get it right. Here's where NHT issues typically surface:
Missing NHT registration numbers. Every employee needs an NHT number. If you hired someone mid-year and never got them registered, their contributions have been going into a holding pattern. NHT will eventually match them, but it creates noise in your annual return and can delay processing. Get any unregistered employees sorted at nht.gov.jm this week.
Incorrect calculation base. NHT is calculated on gross emoluments — that includes allowances, bonuses, and overtime. Some employers calculate NHT only on basic salary, which understates the contribution. If you paid a Christmas bonus in December and didn't include it in that month's NHT calculation, your total is short.
The employer share is higher than the employee share. Unlike NIS where both sides pay 3%, the employer pays 3% NHT while the employee pays 2%. This 5% total is sometimes miscalculated as 4% (2% + 2%) by employers who assume the rates are equal.
Run the numbers. The PayrollJamaica calculator breaks out NHT for both the employee and employer share so you can verify the split.
How to Verify Your Year-End Figures: A Practical Approach
You have 12 months of payroll data. Checking every line for every employee sounds overwhelming. Here's how to make it manageable:
Step 1: Spot-Check Three Employees
Pick three employees with different pay profiles:
- One who earned the same amount every month (your simplest case)
- One who had a salary change mid-year
- One who received bonuses or overtime
For each, calculate their full-year deductions using the PayrollJamaica calculator and compare against your payroll records. If all three match, your system is likely calculating correctly across the board. If even one is off, you need to check everyone.
Step 2: Total Your S02 Remittances
Add up the 12 monthly S02 amounts you remitted to TAJ. This total must equal the sum of all employee deductions plus employer contributions for the full year. If these don't balance, there's either a calculation error or a missed/double payment somewhere in the year.
Step 3: Cross-Reference NHT and NIS Separately
Don't just check the lump totals. Break out NHT contributions and NIS contributions separately. It's common for PAYE to be correct while NHT or NIS is slightly off — especially after mid-year hires or salary adjustments.
Real Talk: What Happens If Your Numbers Are Wrong
Yuh might be thinking, "Mi just file wha mi have and sort it out later." Understandable. But here's what "sort it out later" actually looks like:
- TAJ sends an assessment — they compare your SO1 against their S02 records and if the numbers don't match, they issue an assessment for the difference plus interest
- You owe the difference plus penalty — even if you overpaid in some months and underpaid in others, TAJ calculates based on each month's shortfall, not the net
- NHT follows up separately — NHT conducts its own reconciliation and if your annual return doesn't match their records, you receive a separate demand
- NIS discrepancies affect employees — incorrect NIS records can affect an employee's benefit entitlements down the road, which becomes your problem when they come asking questions
Getting it right now takes an afternoon. Getting it wrong takes months to unravel. Choose the afternoon.
What Your Week Should Look Like
Here's your schedule for the next seven days:
| Day | Action | |---|---| | Saturday March 14 | Spot-check 3 employees using the calculator | | Monday March 16 | Total all 12 S02 remittances and compare against payroll records | | Tuesday March 17 | Break out NHT and NIS contributions separately; verify rates | | Wednesday March 18 | Fix any discrepancies found — adjust records, prepare amended S02s if needed | | Thursday March 19 | Begin preparing SO1 with verified, clean numbers | | Friday March 20 | Review SO1 draft; confirm NHT annual return data is ready |
If you follow this schedule, you enter Week 3 (the final push) with clean, verified numbers and can focus entirely on filing.
If You're Using Spreadsheets, Consider This Your Sign
Running payroll on spreadsheets is how most small Jamaican businesses start. No shame in that. But spreadsheets don't flag when a rate changes, don't warn you when NHT is calculated on basic salary instead of gross, and don't automatically generate SO1-ready figures.
If this year's reconciliation is painful, it doesn't have to be like this next year. PayrollJamaica's payroll software applies the correct statutory rates automatically — PAYE with the right threshold, NIS with the ceiling, NHT on the correct base, Education Tax at the right percentages. Every month's figures are SO1-ready from day one. No end-of-year scramble.
But that's a decision for April. Right now, focus on the numbers in front of you.
The Calculator Is Free. Use It.
Nuh guess. Nuh estimate. Nuh assume your numbers are right because "dem look about right."
The PayrollJamaica calculator takes less than 30 seconds per employee. Enter the gross pay, see every deduction broken out — PAYE, NIS (employee and employer), NHT (employee and employer), Education Tax (employee and employer). Compare those figures against what's in your records.
If they match: good, move on to the next employee. If they don't: you just found a problem you can fix this week instead of fighting with TAJ about it in May.
17 days. Check your numbers this week. File with confidence next week.
Verify your payroll calculations now — free calculator at payrolljamaica.com/calculator