How are foreign dividends from an unlisted company treated?

Posted 23 April 2024

Are dividends from foreign shares (not listed on any exchange) bought privately from a foreign business tax exempt?  If not, how would the dividend paid be treated for tax purposes?

My seafarer exemption was rejected. What do I do now?

Posted 30 January 2024

I received a SARS assessment after submitting my tax return via TaxTim. During the submission, there was no payment to SARS expected. However I then received an assessment for a large (R2m) balance owed. At the time I assumed it was a mistake or a premature assessment before my documents had been processed, but I've now received an email from SARS stating Outstanding Debt. Please could you assist me with understanding the significant discrepancy between the TaxTim calculation and the SARS assess...

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Overseas income

Updated 9 May 2022

I have been working overseas and will be doing so for the whole of 2022 tax year making me provisional:
a. What average exchange rate will I use?
b. When is the first Provisional tax return due and, if necessary payable?
c. Can I deduct my overseas pension and medical from my gross income or is this only if I have a pension/RA and medical in South Africa?
d. I know that R1. 25 mil is exempt so how would I work out the tax on that as I know that I cannot claim all overseas tax...

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I received an auto assessment sms from SARS

Updated 28 April 2022

SARS has sent me an SMS saying they have calculated my assessment tax and I can accept or edit this. I have done an early tax return with TaxTim and I'm not sure what to do now as I cannot submit that tax return until 1 Sep 2022

Living, working and paying tax abroad

Updated 25 April 2022

I have been living and working abroad in Australia for Australian companies since 2017. All the while I have been paying income tax, social security tax etc. in Australia. Naturally, I do not have an IRP5 from the Australian employer. As far as I understand SARS still requires me to declare my income? If so where and how do I declare this on the tax return?

Transfers from spouse & car sales

Updated 21 April 2022

I have 2 questions

Question 1: My wife sometimes transfers some money into my account to pay a certain bill. The amounts total less than R100,000, it is never anything above that. Do I need to declare this under the TaxTim section question "Did you earn or receive any other money that you think should NOT be taxed?"? Will I be taxed on that amount?

Question 2: I sold my car and bought another car. Do I need to declare the amount I received after settling the remaining insta...

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Are Share Options taxed on date of them vesting (eligible but not exercised) or only when exercised?

Updated 21 April 2022

I have the option to participate in an employee share option scheme, but I'm a little unclear on the tax implications. I high-level view is as follows:

Options will be granted at an agreed price (e.g. R1)
The options will vest over a four year period (annually)
Once vested, I would be able to exercise the right to purchase and retain shares or sell to a willing buyer because the company is private, it may not always be easy to find a willing buyer (e.g. At the end of each year), and I may also not have funds available to purchase the shares myself. My main question is around when would I become liable for tax?...

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Severance pay and tax exemption

Updated 17 April 2022

My severance pay was taxed normal tax after I got retrenched even though my employer informed me that they applied for a tax exemption. Is this correct because I am confused about this? It was the first time an exemption was requested on my behalf and it was the first-time I got retrenched too. The amount of my severance pay was R370 000 and it was taxed normally. What recourse do you perhaps have for me regarding this matter please?

Deceased Relative and Savings

Updated 17 April 2022

I have a relative that has unfortunately passed on and I am the dependent that will receive all the savings from this relative- these savings are coming from an international bank account, in Norway. This would be my first time having to claim this and making sure that I do it correctly. What I would like to find out is, what would I need to do on my side to ensure that I am safe and clear with SARS and the laws of the country?

Divorce payout of approximately R850,000.00. How much would SARS tax?

Updated 11 April 2022

My husband needs to pay me R850 000 maintenance as part of our divorce settlement, seeing as he does not have the funds all at once so he will be paying it to me in as a lump sum of R600 000 and the rest will be monthly payments for 3 years. What will the tax be on it?

TaxTim says:

There should be no tax due on the R600 000 if it's maintenance paid from your husband to you, you are however required to declare this income to SARS under the n...

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What happens once I've submitted my tax return form?

Posted 6 April 2022

One of the questions most asked when it comes to tax season, is “what happens now that I’ve submitted my income tax return, when do I get my refund?”’

If you’re due a tax refund then you will probably get the money deposited into your account within a few days. SARS will also email or SMS you telling you that an IT34 (Summary of your return and refund) and ITSA (Income Tax Statement of Account) have been issued. They will detail your tax refund (tax back) if any. So look forward to that deposit into your account. ...

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Shareholder Loan and own company

Updated 5 April 2022

I have a loan with my company (payable from the company). I would like to know what the effects are that we need to consider regarding interest-free loans? I am aware that we can create a tax deduction for the company and I will have the interest exemption, but I feel there is something I'm missing?

Also if the shareholder already exceeded his R23k exemption, will it be fine if we do not levy any interest on this loan? Will there be any unknown tax consequences for that?

...

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Do I pay tax on profits from Forex trading?

Posted 5 April 2022

Q: How do I pay Tax on Forex Trading?

I am a South African resident. I am a full-time forex trader (almost a year now). I trade via a broker overseas, I deposit funds into my trading account via their bank accounts here in South Africa. I would like to know if my profits from trading forex are taxed, how do I declare this and what forms should I fill from sars. Also, what can I expect in terms of what percentage of tax I will pay?

How do I account for online Forex Trading in my income tax return?

Posted 5 April 2022

A little background on myself. I am a salaried employee of the department of health in South Africa. I am registered with eFiling and have been submitting tax returns since 2008/09.

I have a hypothetical question about forex trading. If I make say R300 000 suppose in the 2012/2013 tax year and the amount I deposited was about R50000to fund the account, then what would my taxation be? Or at least what would the percent on taxation be and on which amount would that percentage be taken off? The net or the total?...

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Is VAT on commission subjected to income tax?

Updated 31 March 2022

If an individual who is a registered as VAT vendor acts as an Agent and earns commission ad obviously charges output tax and declares it to SARS.

I.e. Someone who has invoiced out R100.00 and declared an output tax of R13.04 to SARS, when the time comes to file their personal income tax does the person have to declare the same amount being R86.96 excluding VAT as their commission income and do they have to pay income tax on the above amount?

Will that not be double taxati...

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VAT on interest

Updated 31 March 2022

I have a business that collects debt on behalf of other service providers, we eventually charge interest if the payments are overdue longer than 3 months. Are we required to charge VAT on this interest?

How should an online freelancer pay tax?

Updated 31 March 2022

Hi there, I need some advice. I currently work full-time but will be going freelance from April. I have already started some freelance work on the side, and wanted to know how I should go about paying tax for this? Most of the Freelance work I am doing is on an online website (for countries all around the world) and I transfer the funds into my bank account each month. No tax is taken off of this by the website, so I wanted to find out how I should go about paying tax, would it be a monthly or y...

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Tax on Forex Trading

Updated 29 March 2022

Q: How do I go about paying tax on forex income?

I will soon be receiving additional income of about R30000.00pm from a forex investor who is trading on my behalf, I am not trading. My current income is around R36000.00 to R41000.00 gross per month.
How do I go about paying tax on the forex income? Do I have any exemptions on this?

Also can you please give me advice in terms of paying less tax? I presume the bes...

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Capital Loss on the disposal of my Primary Residence

Posted 17 March 2022

I sold my property, which is my primary residence, for R9 million. The initial purchase price was R7 million and I spent R1 million on improvements - the total base cost was therefore R8 million. If I apply the R2 million exemption, does this put me in a capital loss position?  (i.e R9m less R8m less R2m = -R1m)

If yes, can I use this capital loss to offset capital gains in the same tax year, or carry it forward to the next tax year?

Do I need to register for VAT if my income is all export related but my turnover exceeds R1m?

Posted 16 March 2022

I am a provisional taxpayer in South Africa working solely for a foreign company (my services are all export related) with my turnover exceeding R1 million a year. I know that exports are zero-rated for VAT. Do I need to register as a VAT vendor, even though my income would not be subject to VAT?

Is CGT applicable to Share Option vesting?

Posted 15 March 2022

I've received 1000 share options that vest over 4 years at 25% per year. After the initial vesting on 1 Jan 2022 I have the right to exercise the options, it's likely I will only exercise the options at company exit a few years later. When will I be liable for CGT?

Money owed to SARS

Posted 15 March 2022

I want to understand why I am owing SARS and how to pay the money to SARS?

What happens to previous late/incomplete tax returns after a penalty has been paid in full?

Posted 21 July 2020

I have been working abroad permanently for more than three years and I reside outside of South Africa. I have never fully understood the tax rules and see that I have some penalties (fines) for late/incomplete submissions. I do not have any way of receiving all information needed to submit old tax returns, so I want to know what will happen when I pay the penalties? Will it just start racking up again for the same infringements or will I have a clean slate to do things the right way going forwar...

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Individual Tax Consultation

Posted 18 June 2020

In January 2018 I stopped working as a full time employee and for the 2018/2019 tax year I did various things (including foreign travel and work) and earned different kinds of incomes. I did not register as a provisional taxpayer as at that stage I really did not know how the year was going to pan out and if I was going back into full time employment again. I would like to settle any tax I may owe for the 2018/2019 year, however with my different incomes, working out the country for more than 18...

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Contract worker and Tax

Posted 22 May 2020

I was retrenched at the end of 2017. My last Tax Return was done in the year 2018. Since April 2019 I have been receiving income for work done on a contract basis and the company indicated that I need to see to my own tax affairs. How do I go about filing my tax return for 2020? Your assistance is highly appreciated.
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