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How many "Trade and Professional Income" sections on an ITR12 does a freelancer need?



Kyle says:
14 June 2016 at 11:10

I'm a freelance creative in the television industry. I work with many clients throughout the year, some deduct PAYE and some pay me the full amount on the invoice. The first question is for those clients who don't deduct tax. I've been working on my tax return on the SARS E-Filing. On my ITR12 I've added a "Local Business, Trade and Professional Income" section to the form, do I create a section per client or per job type? As I'm trading different services for different clients, but I may have 3 clients who I did editing for and 3 clients I did writing for etc. Then some I did multiple services for. My second question is, what if the clients who deducted tax and do not send me the IRP5? How do I submit a tax return without the certificate number? Or can I find the certificates on the SARS E-Filing site?

TaxTim TaxTim says:
14 June 2016 at 12:18

If it is broadly speaking the same type of business, then you would add all your income and expenses together and declare it all within one section within "Local Business, Trade and Professional income". If however, you conduct different unrelated trading activities, you would need to separate them and complete two sections. From what you have described, writing and editing would be classified within one activity.

The IRP5 certificates should be automatically populated in your Tax Return. Just make sure you reflect the correct number of IRP5 tax certificates in the opening questions. If they are not there, you need to request a copy from the client and fill in the details manually.

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