COIDA Return of Earnings Calculator

Estimate your annual Compensation Fund assessment before the notice arrives.

Every employer registered with the Compensation Fund pays an annual assessment: your payroll ÷ 100 × the tariff rate for your industry. The rate depends on how dangerous the Fund considers your line of work, from 0.18% for an office to 3.34% for blasting rock. Pick your business type, say what you pay your people, and the calculator applies the gazetted rate, the earnings ceiling and the minimum assessment for you.

COIDA Assessment Calculator

Need the return filed, not just estimated?

Govchain files the W.As.8 with the Compensation Fund and renews your Letter of Good Standing for R810. We handle the portal and the follow-up.

File my Return of Earnings

Not registered with the Fund yet?Register for COID

How the COIDA assessment is calculated

The formula itself is short: assessment = (total annual earnings ÷ 100) × your tariff of assessment. Earnings means gross remuneration before deductions: salaries and wages, regular overtime and bonuses, and the salaries of working directors. Ad-hoc reimbursements stay out.

Two adjustments sit on top of the formula. First, each employee’s earnings are capped at a ceiling the Fund publishes every year: R633 168 per person for the year that ended 28 February 2026, and R668 000 for the year ending 28 February 2027. A director earning R1 million counts as the ceiling amount, not the million. Second, whatever the formula produces, you pay at least the minimum assessment: R1 621 for a business, R560 for a household that employs domestic workers. A one-person consultancy hits that minimum long before the formula does.

COIDA tariffs of assessment for 2026

The rates come from Schedule A of Government Gazette 43959 (3 December 2020), which sorted every industry subclass into 13 classes and walked each one to its class rate over five years. That phase-in ended with the 2025 assessment year, so the 2026 season is the first where every business simply pays its class rate:

Class	Rate per R100	Typical industries
Class A	0.18	Finance, consultants, medical practices, salons, education, admin
Class F	0.29	Grease manufacturing
Class B	0.51	Fruit packing, breweries, broadcasting, funeral parlours
Class D	0.65	Telecoms, entertainment, pharmaceuticals, laundries, coal mining
Class C	0.81	Retail, hospitality, printing, bakeries, opencast mining, recruitment
Class M	1.04	Private households employing domestic workers
Class L	1.16	Engineering, steel, foundries, vehicle workshops, panel shops
Class H	1.65	Mixed farming, sawmills, petroleum, bricks, paper
Class G	1.96	Food and meat processing, textiles, plastics, woodwork, warehousing
Class E	2.01	Electroplating, horse stabling
Class J	2.65	Construction, transport, security services, livestock farming, forestry
Class K	2.71	Underground mining, quarrying, steel erection, concrete, ocean fishing
Class I	3.34	Rock drilling and blasting

The gazette makes for odd reading in places. Class I, the most expensive band, contains exactly two industries: rock drilling and blasting, and circuses. Grease manufacturing has Class F entirely to itself at 0.29.

Which subclass you sit in was fixed when you registered with the Fund, and it appears on your notice of assessment. If the business has changed direction since registration, say a construction company that now mostly does design work, it is worth applying to the Fund to be reclassified before the next return rather than after it.

Missed the 2026 window? File anyway

The 2026 submission window ran from 1 April to 30 June. Miss it and the Fund can add a penalty of up to 10% of the assessment plus interest, but the portal still accepts late returns, and filing late beats not filing: an unfiled return blocks your Letter of Good Standing, which is usually the document a tender is waiting on. The full walkthrough, portal quirks included, is in our Return of Earnings guide.

Common questions

Is COIDA the same as UIF?

No. UIF is a monthly contribution (2% of pay, split between you and the employee) that funds unemployment benefits. The COIDA assessment is an annual amount the employer pays alone, and it funds compensation for injuries and diseases picked up at work. Registered employers pay both, to two different funds.

Do I pay COIDA for casual or part-time workers?

Yes. Anyone you pay to work for you counts, including casual, seasonal and part-time staff. Their earnings go into the Return of Earnings like everyone else’s.

What if my business does more than one thing?

The Fund classifies the whole business under one subclass based on its main activity. A construction company with two office admins pays the construction rate on the full payroll, admins included. If your registered subclass no longer matches what the business mostly does, you can apply to the Fund to have it corrected.

Can my rate go up if someone claims?

It can. The gazetted rate for your class is the standard rate, and the Fund can load an individual employer’s rate for a poor claims history, or grant a rebate for a good one. The calculator uses the standard rate.

This calculator is a guide. It applies the standard class rates from Gazette 43959 and the published ceiling and minimums; it cannot see your registered subclass, claims history or any loading the Fund has applied to your account. The Fund also re-gazettes the ceiling and minimums each season, so treat your notice of assessment as the number that counts. Figures verified 12 July 2026.