Your COIDA assessment fee is not a fixed amount. It is calculated as a percentage of your total annual payroll — and that percentage depends entirely on which industry class the Compensation Fund has assigned to your business.
The tariff rates are published by the Compensation Commissioner under Section 83 of COIDA and gazetted. They range from 0.18% for low-risk service businesses to 3.34% for the highest-risk operations, and they have not changed for the current year.
What did change is the earnings ceiling. From 1 March 2026 it is R668,000 per employee for the 2026/2027 year; for 2025/2026 it was R633,168. Your Return of Earnings uses both figures — one for the year that ended, one for the year ahead — which is where most of the confusion comes from, and it is covered in full below.
This article sets out every class and subclass, both ceilings worked through with a full calculation, how to check the class the Fund has actually assigned you, and what to do when it is wrong.
The COIDA tariff table — all 13 classes
The Compensation Fund classifies every registered employer into one of 13 industry classes (A through M), each carrying a specific assessment tariff. The tariff is multiplied against your total assessable payroll to produce your annual assessment fee.
| Class | Rate | Industry profile |
|---|---|---|
| A | 0.18% | Finance, beauty and hair salons, medical specialists, consultants, admin, education |
| B | 0.51% | Fruit packing, brewery, coffee/tea/tobacco, broadcasting, funeral parlour |
| C | 0.81% | Opencast mining, fisheries, food retail, clothing, hardware, hospitality |
| D | 0.85% | Sugar farming, coal mining, drilling, pharmaceuticals, telecoms, laundry |
| F | 0.29% | Grease manufacturing |
| G | 1.96% | Meat, dairy, milling, textiles, plastics, woodworks, warehousing |
| H | 1.65% | Mixed farming, sawmilling, paper, petroleum, hides, bricks |
| L | 1.16% | Iron and steel, foundry, engineering, motorcar assembly, Transnet, Eskom |
| M | 1.04% | Households and domestic workers |
| E | 2.01% | Chrome and electroplating, horse stabling |
| J | 2.65% | Livestock farming, building and electrical construction, civil construction, goods transport, security services |
| K | 2.71% | Ocean fishing, underground mining, quarrying, steel construction, concrete, marble, tar and asbestos |
| I | 3.34% | Rock drill and blasting operations, circus |
Source: COIDA Regulations on Tariffs of Assessment — Government Gazette 43959, GN 1282 (3 December 2020), still the operative tariff schedule. The 5-year phase-in period is complete — every class is now at its steady-state rate, which is why the percentages above did not move this year even though the earnings ceiling did.
The earnings ceiling — which of the two figures applies to you
Two figures cap and floor every COIDA assessment regardless of your industry class. The cap is the one people get wrong, because there are currently two live numbers and a single Return of Earnings uses both.
| R633,168 | 2025/2026 — the year that ended 28 February 2026. Use it for the actual earnings you declare. |
| R668,000 | 2026/2027 — from 1 March 2026. Use it for the provisional earnings on the same return, and for the year you are currently in. |
Earnings paid to any individual employee above the applicable ceiling are excluded from your assessable payroll. If you have a director earning R900,000 a year, only R633,168 of that salary enters the actual-earnings side of your last return — and R668,000 enters the provisional side. The 2025/2026 ceiling was itself a 6% increase on R597,328 in 2024/2025.
If you have seen a single figure quoted somewhere without a year attached, that is the reason to check which one it was. The two are eleven months apart and R34,832 different per employee.
Minimum annual assessment: R1,621 (commercial employers)
Regardless of how small your payroll is, the minimum fee applies. A business with one part-time employee earning R60,000 per year in Class A would calculate 0.18% × R60,000 = R108 — but would pay R1,621 because that is the minimum. The minimum increased 5.95% from R1,530 in the prior year.
Minimum annual assessment: R560 (domestic employers)
Households employing domestic workers, gardeners, or childminders have a lower minimum assessment of R560. The Class M tariff of 1.04% applies to household employers.
How to calculate your COIDA assessment fee
The formula is straightforward once you know your class and total payroll.
Step 1 — Total assessable payroll. Add all salaries, wages, overtime, bonuses, and other remuneration paid to employees during the assessment year (1 March 2025 to 28 February 2026 for the return just filed). Cap each individual employee’s earnings at the ceiling for that year — R633,168 for 2025/2026 actual earnings, R668,000 for 2026/2027. Do not include employer contributions to pension, medical aid, or other benefit funds — only cash remuneration counts.
Step 2 — Apply your tariff rate. Multiply your total assessable payroll by your class rate (expressed as a percentage divided by 100).
Step 3 — Apply minimum. If the result is below R1,621 (commercial) or R560 (domestic), the minimum applies.
Example — Class A employer (consulting firm)
- 3 employees, total assessable payroll: R1,800,000
- Calculation: R1,800,000 × 0.0018 = R3,240
- Above minimum, so R3,240 is payable
Example — Class J employer (construction contractor)
- 8 employees, total assessable payroll: R2,400,000
- Calculation: R2,400,000 × 0.0265 = R63,600
- Significantly above minimum
Example — Class M employer (domestic household)
- 1 domestic worker earning R72,000 per year
- Calculation: R72,000 × 0.0104 = R748.80
- Above the R560 domestic minimum, so R748.80 is payable
Within each class: the subclass structure
Each of the 13 classes contains multiple subclasses — 103 subclasses in total across the full COIDA tariff register. All subclasses within a class share the same rate. The subclass determines which class you fall into.
The classification that matters for your assessment is not which broad class label sounds most like your business — it is the specific 4-digit subclass code that the Compensation Fund assigns to your registration. This code is on your employer registration documentation and on your assessment notices.
Common subclasses by industry:
Class A (0.18%) — low-risk services. Includes subclasses covering financial services, accounting practices, legal firms, medical and dental specialists, beauty salons, educational institutions, and business consultants. If your business is entirely office-based with no physical risk activities, you are likely Class A.
Class C (0.81%) — light industrial and retail. Includes food retail (supermarkets, restaurants, takeaways), clothing retail, hardware stores, and hospitality businesses. Note: hospitality sitting at Class C (0.81%) explains part of why the industry’s COIDA non-compliance rate is high — the fee is not trivial on a large hospitality payroll.
Class D (0.85%) — mid-risk processing. Includes pharmaceutical manufacturing, telecoms, coal surface operations, and laundry services.
Class J (2.65%) — construction and transport. Building and electrical construction, civil construction (roads, bridges, earthworks), goods transport (trucks, logistics), and security services all fall within Class J. This is why construction and security employers with larger payrolls carry more significant COIDA assessment obligations — and why they are more motivated to stay compliant.
Class K (2.71%) — high-risk extraction. Underground mining, quarrying, ocean fishing, steel construction, and asbestos-related work. The second-highest rate in the register reflects the genuine workplace injury risk in these industries.
Class I (3.34%) — highest risk. Rock drill and blasting operations carry the highest tariff in the system. If your workforce operates explosive or percussive rock-breaking equipment, this is your class.
Class M (1.04%) — domestic households. Introduced when domestic workers were formally brought under COIDA protection following the Constitutional Court’s Mahlangu ruling. Every household that employs a domestic worker, gardener, or childminder for more than a few hours per week must register under Class M and submit an annual ROE.
How to find your assigned subclass
If you are already registered with the Compensation Fund, your subclass code appears on your employer registration certificate and on your annual assessment notice. Log into the CompEasy portal at cfportal.labour.gov.za — your registration details will show your assigned subclass.
If you are registering for the first time, you select the subclass that most closely matches your primary business activity during the W.As.2 registration process. The full classification table (Form W.As.150T(E)) is available from the Department of Employment and Labour.
If your business has changed its primary activity since you registered, your current subclass may no longer be accurate. The Compensation Fund can reassign your subclass on application — and using the wrong subclass, whether it results in underpayment or overpayment, is correctable.
Why your class matters beyond the fee
The tariff class is not just about how much you pay. It determines the risk category under which your employees are covered and, in the event of a workplace injury claim, influences how the Compensation Fund assesses the claim against your registration.
An employer who is incorrectly classified in a lower-risk class and whose employee suffers an injury characteristic of a higher-risk activity may face complications in the claims process. Accurate classification protects both the employer and the employee.
The 2025/2026 ROE window closed on 30 June 2026
The 2025/2026 Return of Earnings submission window closed on 30 June 2026. This is when you declare your actual payroll for the year just ended (1 March 2025 to 28 February 2026) and your provisional payroll for the year ahead. The Compensation Fund calculates your assessment fee from the ROE and issues an assessment notice.
If you missed the 30 June deadline, a 10% penalty has already been applied automatically and your Letter of Good Standing has lapsed. The combination of a lapsed LOGS and a mounting penalty is the most common COIDA compliance crisis South African employers face — but a late submission still stops it getting worse. See our missed COIDA deadline guide.
Use the ClearComply COIDA calculator to estimate your assessment fee before you submit. Enter your total payroll and select your industry class — the calculator applies the ceiling and the R1,621 minimum automatically and gives you an estimate in seconds.
Assessment come back far higher than this estimate?
The most common reason a COIDA bill is wildly too high is the wrong industry class — a service firm assessed on a construction tariff can pay many times over. You have 30 days from your Notice of Assessment to dispute it. See how to dispute a COIDA assessment, or have a labour practitioner file the revision for you.
For the full ROE submission guide — what to submit, how to submit on CompEasy, and what to do if your LOGS has already lapsed — see our COIDA Return of Earnings guide.
Check your current COIDA compliance status free at clearcomply.co.za/check/coida.
Sources: COIDA Regulations on Tariffs of Assessment — Government Gazette 43959, GN 1282, 3 December 2020. Maximum and minimum assessable earnings, 2025/2026 (R633,168) — Government Gazette 52453, GN 3115. Maximum assessable earnings from 1 March 2026 (R668,000) — Government Gazette 54577, Notice 3910 of 2026. Form W.As.150T(E) Classification of Industries, Department of Employment and Labour. All tariff rates verified against the gazette source documents.