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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The South African government introduced tax-free savings back in 2015 to encourage household savings. As the name suggests, all of the proceeds from tax-free savings accounts (TFSAs), including interest, capital gains and dividends are exempt from tax. This makes these types of investments extremely attractive for South African taxpayers.
Tax-free savings are an investment vehicle created to help South Africans reduce their tax liab...
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Filing a tax return for the first time can be a daunting task. To get you started, we’ve gone back to the basics
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Finance Minister, Enoch Godongwana, delivered his second budget speech to South Africans yesterday. The energy crisis played centre stage with the minister announcing that the government will take over a large part of Eskom's debt. He also outlined two major tax incentives to encourage individuals and businesses to invest in renewable energy and independent electricity generation. Much to everyone's relief, he went on further to announce that there would be no major tax proposals for the year...
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Retirement annuities are tax-smart investments that help you to save for life after your nine-to-five. You generally can’t withdraw these funds before you turn 55, but you may be able to do so if you’ve emigrated from South Africa.
A retirement annuity – or RA for short – is an investment vehicle designed to help people living and working in South Africa save towards retirement. It can be used as a...
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TaxTim has TWO exciting competitions in 2023!
COMPETITION 1: Win R10,000 in cash by filing your tax return with TaxTim
How to enter:
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SARS have recently become a lot stricter about levying administrative penalties. These are penalties for missing the deadline to submit your tax return. You can read about these recent changes in the law here.
2022 tax season:
Non-Provisional Taxpayers: your deadline to submit your 2022 tax return was 24 October 2022. If you missed this deadline, it is very likely that SARS would have issued you an administrative penalty for every month that you are late...
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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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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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If you received another email from TaxTim requesting SARS supporting documents, but you already sent these to SARS more than 21 business days ago, one of these four scenarios might be the reason you are still waiting:
Scenario 1:
You submitted the documents directly on SARS eFiling yourself, but you did not inform TaxTim. In this case, our system needs to be updated to reflect that you already submitted your documents.
Please log into your TaxTim profi...
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Tick-tock, time is running out for non-provisional taxpayers to submit their 2022 tax return. The filing deadline of 24 October 2022 is just around the corner.
Provisional Taxpayers: your tax return filing deadline is 23 January 2023. Breathe easy.
If you ‘think’ you are a Provisional Taxpayer, we strongly suggest you make 100% sure you me...
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The South African Revenue Service (SARS) says it will implement an "online traveller declaration system" that will go into effect on November 1, 2022. According to SARS, the new system will be applicable to all South Africans travelling abroad and says that it will simplify passenger movement at South African airports.
According to SARS, the system's goal is to collect travel information and in exchange, grant a traveller pass via email. It requires that all South Africans and residen...
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Step 1: Please log into your SARS eFiling profile
Step 2: Click on "Home" on the top menu
Step 3: Click on "SARS Registered Details" and then on "Maintain SARS Registered Details" on the l...
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South African expatriates who ignore their tax obligations will soon find themselves facing the wrath of the taxman in the upcoming tax season.
SARS has urged taxpayers including expats (South Africans residing outside the country) to urgently review their tax compliance status or stand the risk of facing major penalties or even jail time.
Originally, individuals were taxed according to a source-based tax system but from 1 March 2001 it has changed so that individuals will be ...
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Step 1:
Log into your SARS eFiling pofile.
Step 2:
Navigate to your Tax Return which was auto-assessed.
You can do this by clicking "Returns" (top menu), then "Returns History" (side menu), then "Personal Income Tax ITR12" , then select the the relevant ITR12.
You will see the
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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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From 1 July to 4 July, SARS aims to issue auto-assessments to taxpayers who are due a refund.
The rest will be issued in batches up to 24 July.
Timing is Everything
If you receive an auto-assessment, you will have just 40 working days to request a tax return on TaxTim (or eFiling), complete and submit it. If you take no action within the ...
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The 2022 filing season opens on 1 July. Tick tock. That’s just around the corner.
It is important to be aware that the season is shorter than prior years. This means that SARS are giving you less time to file your return.
Important Filing Deadlines
24 October 2022: non-provisional taxpayer (i.e. salaried employees)
23 January 2023: provisional taxpayer (i.e self-employed, rental earners, freelancers, etc)
Auto-Assess...
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SARS is warning that those who fail to submit their tax return on time, will face harsh penalties. The period of leeway which applied to 2021 has now passed.
SARS announced a change to their legislation in December 2021 whereby they would levy administrative penalties to taxpayers who missed the filing deadline for one or more tax returns. Prior to this change, taxpayers only paid penalties when two or more returns were outstanding.
As a...
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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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As a nation, South Africa does rather poorly on the savings front. With the majority living near or below the breadline, there’s not much to save when you’re more concerned with just getting through the month. Our high levels of consumer-debt, combined with little in the way of personal savings, means we become financial burdens on the government in the long-run...
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When pursuing a business activity, trade or renting out a property, you’re no doubt doing so to make some money, but the reality for self-starters
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Our Helpdesk receives lots of questions from home sellers who rented out their primary residence for some of the
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We’re aware that sometimes taxpayers may not understand all of the deductions which appear on the tax return. And because of this, expenses that could have been deducted get missed. To help make things easier for you, we’ve explained some of these less understood tax deductions which may be overlooked by taxpayers. They all appear in the Other Deductions section of the ITR12.
The s11(nA) and s11(nB)
If an employee is in breach of an agreement with their employer, they may be asked to pay back a benefit they received from them e.g bonus, maternity leave benefit, bursary, sign on bonus etc. ...
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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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