Taking a closer look at why taxpayers may be required to pay in tax on pensions or annuities on assessment and how they can avoid a repetition of this each year.
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SARS has recently issued a new guide with regards to updating your banking details with them. This was done in order to reduce the risk of refunds being paid into the wrong accounts and also to streamline the process, which has tended to be an onerous one in the past.
Change of bank details can be done:
Have you been the lucky recipient of a gift or donation from a generous family member or friend? Perhaps they struck it lucky on the Lotto and decided to share their winnings with you!
Or maybe you're the giving type and have donated cash, shares or even property to someone you felt deserved a little boost.
Irrespective of whether you're the giver or receiver of a donation or gift, it's good to understand donations from a tax perspective, and how to declare these to SARS.
Ready to find out?
Let's get started.
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You’ve been up since 4am in order to catch yet another red-eye flight for a 9am business meeting - 1,400km away - and you’re already onto your third coffee by the time you board the plane.
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When a Tax Return is filed usually SARS issues an immediate assessment (ITA34), however sometimes they do need to do a further manual check on their side.
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Nowadays, work culture has evolved massively and “Flexible employment” has become the new buzzword. This is especially relevant at the moment, where many employees are still working from home due to the global Corona virus outbreak of 2020.
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Flexible employment is becoming increasingly popular, many taxpayers spend some (or all) of their time working from home. If certain conditions are met, taxpayers are allowed to claim a portion of their office running costs as a tax deduction on their tax return. However, please note that SARS usually flags these returns for audit. If you do work from home, take a read of our home office blog and also check out our handy decision tree to make 100% sure you are claiming this expense correctly.
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In his Budget Speech on 22 February 2023, Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana announced the introduction of tax incentives intended to encourage the rapid uptake of renewable energy.
Government has developed the scheme in a bid to encourage households to invest in clean electricity generation capacity. The programme is intended to minimise demand on the national grid by reducing the number of households that are entirely reliant on Eskom for their power.
The incentives will r...
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Training and development for employees plays a vital role in the growth and success of your business. But, finding affordable and correct tools might be where the concerns start creeping in. Suddenly you’re left thinking… “They’ll learn on the job. Resources are limited.”
Fortunately, you’d be pleased to know that the learnership allowance is intended to be an incentive for employers to encourage skills development within their workforce, with the hope to create jobs and economic growth....
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This year, SARS has once again ‘auto-assessed’ a large number of taxpayers. They have done this using data that they have received from 3rd parties, such as employers, financial institutions, medical schemes and retirement fund administrators.
If you have been auto-assessed, you should receive an email or SMS from SARS within the first few weeks of July. If your auto-assessment shows that you are due a tax refund, we are seeing SARS pay out these refu...
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Too often, taxpayers rush when completing their tax return, and then they miss out on some expenses they are eligible to claim. Don’t overpay tax by overlooking these seven common tax breaks.
Contributions towards a Retirement Annuity
Your contributions towards retirement funds are deductible for tax up to a limit of 27,5% of the greater of your taxable income or remuneration (to a maximum of R350,000 per year). This limit applies to the total contributions you make to any Pension, Provident or Retirement Annuity (RA) fund during the year...
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The cement is all used up and the bricks have been laid exactly where they need to be. A huge sigh of relief because… finally, construction and renovations are complete! And, just when you thought the worry was over, you realise that the differences between the building allowance and renovations aren’t clear to you. “Aren’t they all the same?” is the question lingering in your head. Don't fret, below is a breakdown of the exact clarity you’re looking for. ...
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In order to complete the Medical section of your annual tax return, you will need a tax certificate from your medical scheme (if you contributed to a medical scheme that is!).
This certificate details exactly how much was paid to the medical aid for yourself and your dependents over the course of the tax year (1 March to end Feb). It also details how much money you paid for other medical expenses, such as medicines and doctors expenses, which you claimed for, but your medical aid did NOT cover...
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SARS recently announced the 2022 tax season dates:
01 July 2022 to 24 October 2022: individual (non-provisional) taxpayers
01 July 2022 to 23 January 2023: provisional taxpayers
If you earn less than R500 000 in a year, and fulfill a series of complicated criteria, you may not have to file a tax return in 2022.
However, we advise you to take GREAT CARE here, and understand your duties properly, because if you don't, you may suffer for it later on.
Here are the top 5 reasons why you should not skip filing your tax return this season:
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COMPANY LETTERHEAD
Date
Employee's Full Name
Address
To Whom It May Concern,
Subject: Permission to work from home
This letter serves to confirm that _______________________________ (Name of employee), _____________________ (ID number) who is employed by our firm ___________________ (Company name) in the capacity of __________________________ (Position) has permission to work from h...
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Let’s face it, SARS didn’t make it easy for taxpayers to claim their home office expenses this past tax season. We can’t blame them really - being faced with millions of newbie work-from-homers, they had to weed out the legitimate claims from the chancers.
At the start of the season, they made it clear that they would only allow claims for taxpayers who had a separate office at home, set up specifically for their work, which was used by them alone. The office could n...
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These tips are part of TaxTim's personalised recommendation tool called the Tax Health Score. Once you file your tax return with TaxTim,
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Good news if you’ve been working from home for the past year. You can claim a tax deduction if you worked from home for more than half of your total working hours or for more than six months during the tax year that started in March 2020.
“Claim for your home office if you started working from home at the end of March, and worked there for at least 6 months till the end of February 2021, to deduct this benefit in the tax ...
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Do you receive a travel allowance from your employer because your job used to entail significant travel? As the Covid-19 pandemic hit and lockdown restrictions have curbed travel, you might be wondering how this will affect your taxes. Here’s what you need to know to avoid owing the taxman, even more, this tax season.
Under normal circumstances, your employer would only offer you a travel allowance if your job requi...
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For those fortunate enough to receive bonus payments as part of your remuneration, you’ll understand the
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There is a section in the tax return called ‘Other Deductions’ which often causes confusion for taxpayers
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Medical expenses are nothing to sneeze at. Private medical treatment is increasingly pushing the limits of medical aid scheme
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Why must I pay tax, I don’t earn enough! Will I get a penalty if I don’t disclose all my income to SARS?
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