A few years ago, SARS introduced a new section onto the Tax Return called “Unemployed Periods.” Taxpayers are required to complete this section by entering all the times within the tax year they were not working.
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We receive many questions from taxpayers about how to declare their income in the event that they are married in Community of Property (CoP).
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From the 25th October 2019, the printed Tax Clearance Certificate (TCC) will be substituted by the electronic Tax Compliance Status (TCS). This new digital version of the TCC allows for a more secure experience. Want to win R10,000 in cash just for filling your Individual (ITR12) tax return for the 2019 tax year? How to enter: Exempt or non-taxable income refers to certain types of income, which is not subject to income tax. This is a common area of concern for many taxpayers who don’t know why they are asked to submit documents to SARS after they file their tax return. Hundreds of thousands of South Africans are filing their annual tax returns and everyday people ask us “when will I get my refund from SARS?”. With the first provisional return still fresh in the minds of taxpayers, we thought it would be a good time to highlight some questions that were asked to our Helpdesk last month. We’ve recently received many questions from taxpayers asking us if we physically went into a SARS office to submit their returns manually. You have filed all your outstanding tax returns with SARS and when receiving your ITA34 assessment/ Statement of Account/ Penalty statement you notice that you owe SARS some tax. There are three main options available to you, if you want to make a payment to SARS. 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. On 20 June 2019, President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) of the sixth parliament, and for the first time in years, we witnessed an uninterrupted SONA. And that is not the only first. For the first time, the SONA cost almost R2m, a staggering 47% lower than the cost of SONA 2018 and the lowest in five years. You may have heard the recent announcement from SARS that certain taxpayers who earn less than R500 000 per year don’t need to submit a tax return. However, this only applies under very specific conditions so it is extremely important to understand these fully if you think you may be affected. You can read all about this rule here. This year SARS are taking things one step further. They ... At TaxTim we receive many questions from taxpayers who pay medical aid for dependent family members and who want to know if they can claim for this in their tax return. When paying medical aid contributions for a ‘financial dependent’ the medical scheme fees tax credit applies in respect of fees paid by the person to a medical scheme. This means that the person who is paying the medical aid will receive the medical tax credits, and not the dependent/member of the medical aid. Who is a ‘dependent’?... 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 Usually SARS issued an immediate assessment, however sometimes they do need to do a further manual check on their side. Often the reason for this is one of the following: TaxTim and SARS use all the financial information you provide to work out the most accurate estimate of your potential refund (or tax liability) for the current tax season. However, there may be some information we don’t have access to, or information from prior years we don’t know about, that won’t be included in the estimate of your tax refund or tax liability. Our helpdesk receives hundreds of questions from commission earners about how their tax is calculated. Many are also confused about which expenses they can claim. Hopefully our FAQ will help other taxpayers who might be puzzling over the same issues. Should the commiss... You may have seen the latest announcement by the SARS commissioner to increase the qualifying threshold for certain taxpayers to submit a tax return from R350 000 to R500 000. However as with all previous years, this only applies to certain taxpayers and so it is very important to check if you are one of these. The threshold applies to you only if you meet ALL of the criteria below: By now you would have seen the latest announcement by the SARS commissioner to increase the qualifying threshold for certain taxpayers There are times when the call centre agent from SARS is unable to resolve your issue and you need to reach out to a more senior person at SARS. You can request to speak to a team leader / operations manager or the branch / call centre manager and they should be able to assist you. Always remember to note down the case number for your call. If however, you're not satisfied with the outcome of the issue, you can lodge a formal complaint with an agent at a SARS branch or on eFiling (if y... This week we zoom into Wear and Tear also commonly known as Depreciation. Below we've covered some of the top questions we've received from our Helpdesk. Take a quick read through our Q&As and see how your pressing depreciation questions can potentially be solved. It’s that time of the year again and employers are issuing their employees IRP5s for the tax year. An IRP5 is a tax certificate which shows the total employment income that you earned for the tax year, the total employment related deductions that were taken from your income and paid over to either a retirement fund (pension, provident or retirement annuity fund) or a medical aid and the total tax (PAYE, UIF and SDL) that you paid... If you are an Uber driver, you use your own vehicle/s to generate your income and you determine your own working hours, you will be treated as being self-employed (i.e. an independent contractor) for tax purposes. Since you do not earn a salary, you should be registered as a provisional taxpayer with SARS.
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File with TaxTim and WIN R10,000!
Posted 9 October 2019
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TaxTim in Fairlady Magazine
Posted 7 October 2019
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Top Questions on Income that is not taxed
Posted 3 October 2019
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I've never been audited before. Why now?
Posted 17 September 2019
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When Will SARS Pay My Tax Refund?
Posted 16 September 2019
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Top Questions on Provisional Tax
Posted 13 September 2019
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Return Status ‘Filed through Branch’ " What Does This Mean?
Posted 13 September 2019
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Making payments to SARS
Posted 5 September 2019
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Tax on Pension Annuities
Posted 14 August 2019
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SONA 2019 - A Short Summary
Posted 23 July 2019
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SARS has done a ‘simulated calculation’ for me " what does this mean?
Posted 19 July 2019
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How to claim medical aid costs for a family member
Posted 19 July 2019
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Some common (and sometimes forgotten) tax deductions
Posted 19 July 2019
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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What should I do if I have no assessment from SARS after having filed a return?
Posted 11 July 2019
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Why refund/tax liability estimations may differ from the SARS calculator and final SARS ITA34 assessment
Posted 24 June 2019
Just like the SARS eFiling tax calculator, TaxTim doesn’t take into account provisional tax payments, unpaid penalties, carry-over amounts from previous years and assessed losses...
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Top questions on Commission Earners
Posted 7 June 2019
1. I have a salary and earn a small commission; can I claim for my travel to and from work every day? (The commission is based on the sales that my team makes telephonically per month).
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Clarifying the tax return threshold set by SARS
Posted 4 June 2019
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Top Questions on tax seasons
Posted 4 June 2019
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How to lodge a complaint with SARS
Posted 28 May 2019
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Wear and Tear (Depreciation) Top Questions
Posted 21 May 2019
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Top Questions on IRP5s
Posted 9 May 2019
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Tax Treatment for Uber Drivers
Posted 24 April 2019
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