Written by Marc
Updated 13 July 2025
Tax season always throws up some interesting and confusing calculations, but for many, the most confusing of all is how medical aid contributions and Out of Pocket medical expenses are treated.
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Written by Nicci
Posted 26 June 2025
SARS has made changes to the 2025 tax return to help taxpayers who ceased South African tax residency during the tax year. If this applies to you, your tax return will now include two parts:
Part 1: While you were still a South African tax resident
Written by Nicci
Updated 14 June 2025
As a Director of a Company, your salary is subject to monthly PAYE and UIF deductions. Many small business owners don’t realise that if they operate their business through a company (Pty), the company needs to be registered as an employer with SARS.
This means, the company needs to deduct employee’s tax (PAYE) from the amounts paid to Directors. It’s also required to make monthly EMP201 submissions (this is the PAYE, UIF and SDL return) to SARS. The same applies even in the case of “owner managed” businesses -where there’s only one director and no employees...
Written by Nicci
Updated 7 June 2025
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.
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).
Should the commiss...
Written by Nicci
Updated 6 June 2025
Although the latest budget avoids the steep VAT hike proposed last month, it still puts significant pressure on taxpayers.
All taxpayers will feel the pinch, as tax brackets and rebates have not been adjusted for inflation - for the second year in a row.
VAT is proposed to rise by 0.5 percentage point this year, with another increase planned for 2026, bringing it to 16%...
Written by Alicia
Posted 3 June 2025
The 2025 filing season opens this year on Monday, 21 July.
This year, the tax season is even shorter than last year (and last year was shorter than the prior year!). This means that SARS are giving you less time to file your tax return.
Important Filing Deadlines
20 October 2025: Salary-only employees, who earn no other signficant income (i.e. non-provisional taxpayers) and ALL auto-assessed ...
Written by Patrick
Updated 3 June 2025
What is an auto-assessment?
This is an automatic assessment issued by SARS to certain taxpayers.
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Written by Nicci
Posted 23 May 2025
The Section 13sex residential unit deduction is a South African tax break for people who invest in new rental properties. If you build or buy new units to rent out, you can deduct part of the building cost from your taxable income each year. To qualify, you must own at least five new and unused residential units in South Africa that are used for rental.
You can claim 5% of the building cost
Written by Alicia
Posted 23 May 2025
What is a financial instrument according to SARS?
A financial instrument is a contract that represents money or something of value. For one party, it’s an asset (something valuable), and for the other party, it’s a liability (something owed) or equity (ownership).
According to SARS, a financial instrument is defined to include:
“a share, a member’s interest in a company, a debenture, a unit in a unit trust
scheme, a participatory interest in a portfolio of collective investments scheme, a...
Written by Alicia
Posted 19 May 2025
Written by Alicia
Posted 19 May 2025
If I run a small business and buy an asset like a vehicle for R200,000 (paid in full and not financed), can I deduct the full amount from my taxable income in the same year? Or do I only deduct the depreciation amount each year?
Also, do vehicles qualify for the 50/30/20% depreciation rule over three years like other small business assets?
Written by Alicia
Updated 15 May 2025
The enhanced tax incentive recently introduced by the government, known as Section 12BA, aims to promote private investment in electricity generation from renewable energy sources to help alleviate the energy crisis in the country. This incentive is a temporary enhancement of the existing renewable energy tax incentive found in section 12B of the Income Tax Act.
Below are the key points:
Availability and Duration
The incentive is available from 1 ...
Written by Nicci
Posted 14 May 2025
South Africa introduced the Two-Pot Retirement System to help people access part of their retirement savings before retirement age, while keeping the rest for retirement. It's a helpful system – but it comes with tax rules that can surprise some people.
If you withdrew from your Two-Pot in the tax year, you need to include the details of this withdrawal in your annual tax return. The fund should have issued you an IRP5/IT3a tax certificate which reflects the withdrawal amount (source code 3926), related tax as well as the tax directive number issued by SARS...
Written by Alicia
Updated 7 May 2025
The assets and liabilities section in the annual tax return (ITR12) needs to be completed if you:
Each asset should be reported at its original cost — the amount you paid at the time of purchase or investment. According to SARS, these entrie...
Written by Nicci
Posted 30 April 2025
Shares represent ownership in a company. When you buy shares, you become a shareholder — meaning you own a small part of that company. Companies issue shares to raise money, and in return, investors get a chance to benefit from the company’s growth and profits.
There are two main ways to make money from shares:
Written by Nicci
Posted 30 April 2025
A bond is essentially a loan you give to a company, a municipality, or the government. It is a type of investment. When you buy a bond, you are lending money—and in return, they pay you interest as income and promise to pay back the original amount (called the capital) at a fixed date in the future.
Important: an "investment bond" is not to be confused with a "mortgage bond", which you...
Written by Nicci
Updated 24 April 2025
COMPANY LETTERHEAD
Date
Employee's Full Name
Address
To Whom It May Concern,
Subject: Confirmation of foreign employment
This letter serves to confirm that____________________________(Name of employee) _______________________(ID number) is employed by __________________________(company name) in the capacity of__________________________(position).
He/she is contracted to work overseas in _______________ (country) from ______________dd/mm/yy to ________________dd/mm/yy. ...
Written by Nicci
Updated 23 April 2025
1. How many returns should I file each year if I am a provisional taxpayer?
You are required to file 3 returns i.e. 2 provisional tax returns (IRP6s) and one annual return (ITR12). The reason you need to file the annual return, too, is that your provisional returns are based on an estimate of your taxable income, while the annual return reflects your actual taxable income. Any provisional payments you have made for the year will be deducted from your final tax liability, which is calculated when you submit your annual tax return for assessment.
2...
Written by Alicia
Updated 22 April 2025
Provisional tax can be confusing, especially when it comes to the timing of payments. If you miss the first payment, do you need to catch it up, or can you just pay the second one? And what happens if you become a provisional taxpayer halfway through the year - are you still expected to file a first provisional tax return? In this post, we’ll attempt to clear up the confusion around first and second provisional tax payments.
Brief summary
Written by Alicia
Updated 22 April 2025
TaxTim uses the financial information which you entered to work out the payment due on your provisional tax return (also called an IRP6). However, there may be some information we don’t have access to, which won’t be included in the estimate of your provisional tax payment. To see what SARS has on record, you will need to request a Provisio...
Written by Alicia
Updated 22 April 2025
During the final days of the provisional tax season, high traffic volumes may cause delays in submitting provisional tax returns to SARS—even after you've clicked 'submit' on our website.
To avoid late payment penalties, we recommend paying the estimated provisional tax amount shown on our website. Once your provisional tax return (IRP6) appears in eFiling and your SARS provisional Statement o...
Written by Nicci
Updated 16 April 2025
Surely most of us love to travel, but traveling for business purposes is no fun when it comes to completing your tax return.
SARS has some rather onerous requirements, but as long as you know what you need, submitting your documents to SARS should be plain sailing.
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Written by Nicci
Updated 16 April 2025
Travel expenses and their tax impact are a complex issue for many. It’s no surprise that it’s a common theme on our Helpdesk.
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Written by Nicci
Updated 15 April 2025
Consult the image below to find all the tax-related information on your IRP5 that you will need when completing your annual tax return.
Written by Vee
Updated 10 April 2025
Medical expenses are nothing to sneeze at. Private medical treatment is increasingly pushing the limits of medical aid scheme
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