SARS refund on hold - do not have the historic tax returns

  Written by Nicci   Posted 22 August 2025

I don't have copies of my outstanding tax returns for previous years, SARS has put my refund on hold

Everything you need to know about Pay Periods on your IRP5

  Written by Evan   Updated 23 May 2025

What are Pay Periods?

Your IRP5 has two fields on it that relate to Pay Periods:

1. Periods in a year of assessment
2. No. of periods worked
3. Period employed from
4. Period employed to

A Pay Period describes an amount of time within a year that you were employed by your employer.

This can be an amount in:

• DAYS - maximum 365, or 365.0000
• WEEKS -  maximum 52, or 52.000 (can show a partial number, e.g...

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IRP5 from an unrecognized company

  Written by Nicci   Posted 5 May 2025

There is an IRP5 from a company I don't recognise, with a value I didn't enter. I have two IRP5's and entered that data but on my final submission I can see three IRP5's. How can I verify if this is correct or not as I don't want to get penalised. It could be from moving a Retirement Annuity but will I have to pay tax on this, or will it effect my tax return in any way?

Unemployed Periods Section on the ITR12 Tax Return

  Written by Nicci   Posted 24 April 2025

There is a section on the ITR12 tax return that asks you to indicate any periods during the tax year when you were not working (i.e., were unemployed).

This section applies only to South African tax residents who are salaried employees and receive an IRP5.

...

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Salary and Consulting

  Written by Alicia   Posted 24 April 2025

I am already paying income tax on my salary, I now want to do consulting work, what is the best way to handle tax in this regard?

Provisional taxpayer: what to do if I became one late in the year?

  Written by Nicci   Posted 14 April 2025

I only became a provisional tax payer in December 2024. Prior to that I was under PAYE with my previous employer. How do I submit my tax return and will I need to file two seperate tax returns? Can I submit for only 2 months?

How to claim a home office deduction if I didn't receive an IRP5?

  Written by Nicci   Posted 20 February 2025

I worked for an international company (UK based) during the 2024 tax year. I was a contracted employee, meaning I had to submit salary invoices. Therefore, I was advised to register as a provisional tax payer and submitted an IRP6. I worked 100% from home during this time and would like to claim a home office deduction, which was already taken into account during my IRP6 submission (audited by SARS and accepted). However, when submitting my home office deduction on Tax Tim for my IRT12, it says ...

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How do I obtain my ITA34 documents?

  Written by Alicia   Posted 21 May 2024

I have lived abroad for six years and have not paid my taxes in South Africa.
I have now returned and am living in South Africa. I need to obtain my ITA34 documents for the past three years for the bank.

How do I do my taxes as a freelancer?

  Written by Alicia   Posted 16 May 2024

I'm a freelancer  - how do I do my taxes? Do I register as provisional taxpayer or can I still pay PAYE monthly?

I'm a remote worker who needs help with their tax

  Written by Alicia   Updated 14 May 2024


I'm an independent contractor working remotely for an international company. The company is not obligated to pay my tax, therefore I need to do it myself.  However,  I'm not sure what the process entails.  Please can you offer help?

Can construction workers claim a tax refund?

  Written by Nicci   Posted 30 April 2024

I work as a bricklayer on a building site. Do I need to submit a tax return and are construction employees allowed to claim a tax refund?

How do I calculate tax on my overtime?

  Written by Nicci   Posted 26 April 2024

I worked some overtime in the past few months. I am wondering how to calculate the tax on it. What tax bracket does overtime fall under?

Do I file a provisional return for a sole proprietor that I started in January?

  Written by Nicci   Posted 26 April 2024

I started as sole proprietor in January this year. Do I still need to file a Period 2 provisional tax return (IRP6) this February? The questions on Tax Tim are asking for the whole financial year (i.e from March last year until the end of February this year). Do I then just calculate the income and expenses for January and February of this year?

Tax on my travel allowance

  Written by Nicci   Posted 24 April 2024

My employer is satisfied that only 60% of my travel allowance will be for business purpose, do I only include the 60% in my monthly payslip for PAYE purposes or do I revert back to the 80/20 rule?

What percentage tax does a person as a consultant pay?

  Written by Nicci   Posted 23 April 2024

I have been offered a job as a part time consultant. The company says that I must pay tax directly to SARS. How much tax will I have to pay directly to SARS?

I work two jobs - can I claim internet for both?

  Written by Nicci   Posted 23 April 2024

I work two jobs as an independent contractor in addition to my full-time salary. I use the same fibre internet connection for both these jobs which is debited on a monthly basis. Am I correct in saying I can only claim for it once on my tax return, and not twice for both jobs?

Then I also want to know if my TaxTim payment is deductible? 

Send me tax number

  Written by Chantill   Posted 18 January 2024

Please send me my tax number

When can I submit my tax return?

  Written by Nicci   Updated 9 May 2022

When can I submit my tax return for the 2022 tax season? Are the filing dates still the same as those of the previous year?

Overseas income

  Written by Nicci   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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Accepted auto assess forgot my travel logbook

  Written by Nicci   Updated 3 May 2022

What will happen if I already accepted my auto assessment, but I have done so without submitting my travel logbook, am I able to fix this myself, what should I do? Am I correct in saying that I would need to request some sort of correction on eFiling and how would I go about doing this? How and where on the eFiling system should I go to get the request for correction?

Why am I getting auto-assessed? Where is my tax return?

  Written by Nicci   Updated 3 May 2022

I received an auto-assessment from SARS but I am confused what this means. Why have I been selected by SARS and how did SARS get my data? Can I still submit a tax return if I want to?

Retrenchment tax

  Written by Nicci   Updated 25 April 2022

I have been retrenched because of the company cutting back on staff. My severance package is R107000 including R14000 leave pay. I am 57 years old female. I have been paid out R87000, is that correct?
I thought I did not have to pay tax if my lump sum was under R500 000? Please could you assist me with this as I am very much confused?

Living, working and paying tax abroad

  Written by Nicci   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?

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

  Written by Nicci   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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Changing banking details

  Written by Nicci   Updated 21 April 2022

I would like to find out the following information regarding my banking details. I have recently changed my banking details from Capitec bank to Nedbank. My salary is paid into my Nedbank and debit orders are also connected to this bank. I still use my Capitec bank account and intend to keep it active. I would like to enquire if I need to notify SARS of the change in banking detail and would I also need to go into the SARS branch to make this happen?

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