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Latest Posts in TaxTim's Blog

How to add a registered representative to your company with SARS

  Written by Alicia  

In previous years, it was relatively easy to add a company to your eFiling profile, whether it was an Organization or Tax Practitioner profile.

However, since early last year, SARS has changed the procedure. Now, to add a company to your profile, you need to add  a registered representative. In order to do this, you must send a request to SARS along with the following documents each time you want to represent a new company:

  • An image of yourself taken on the day the...


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Navigating your way around your IRP5

  Written by Nicci  

Received your IRP5 or IT3(a) but unsure what it all means? Here’s a quick introduction to help you understand this tax document.

Personal details:

Your IRP5 starts with your personal details. While these details won’t override what SARS has on record, it’s important to check them and update any outdated information with your employer.

Income:

Your ...



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How to access your eFiling login details

  Written by Alicia  

In order to use TaxTim and import your tax certificates directly from your SARS eFiling profile, you will need to be able to login to your SARS profile.

If you do not remember your eFiling username and password, here is a short guide to request it:

1. Go to  SARS eFiling and click "Forgot Username". 



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Turnover Tax FAQs

  Written by Neo  

What is the definition of tax threshold? Tax thresholds? SARS Threshold.
A Tax threshold is the lower limit of earnings at which tax needs to start being paid. So any income less than the current threshold, would not be taxed.

What is Turnover Tax? 
Turnover Tax is a streamlined taxation system designed to simplify tax compliance for small businesses. It replaces several types of taxes—Income Tax, VAT, Provisional Tax, Capital Gains Tax, and Dividends Tax—with a single tax based on turnover...



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What is Turnover Tax?

  Written by Vee  

Turnover Tax is a simplified tax system only available to sole proprietors, partnerships, companies, or close corporations with a “qualifying turnover” of less than R1m per year. These types of entities are called micro businesses.

As the name implies, Turnover Tax is a type of tax, which is calculated against the turnover of a business, as opposed to a percentage of profit (i.e. income less business expenses) as per usual business tax. This difference reduces the administ...



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Renewable Energy Incentives for Businesses

  Written by Alicia  

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 ...



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Navigating around your Easy Equities tax certificate (IT3c)

  Written by Neo  



1. This is the gross base cost of all shares you bought through the institution. You must NOT use this value on your return.

2. This is the base cost i.e the costs attached to the sale of your shares. This amount needs to be entered as the base cost in the  capital gains section of your tax return.

3. This is the...



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SARS eFiling profile hacking

  Written by Alicia  

SARS has reported a rise in eFiling profile hijacking, involving various methods such as altering security details, creating, or modifying taxpayer profiles, and executing SIM swaps.

The hijackers’ objectives are to redirect tax refunds to fraudulent bank accounts, which they are setting up for this purpose. There are certain banks which appear to feature more frequently.

If you are the victim of such profile hacking, you must immediately report this fraud via the



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HELP: SARS issued me with a penalty for old tax returns

  Written by Neo  


So, you’ve recently submitted your tax returns and shortly thereafter you receive a message from SARS informing you about admin penalties that have been charged against you. This has most probably come as a shock to you. We’ve been inundated with questions from taxpayers asking about these penalties which have been charged against them.  Below we’ve highlighted things you need to know as well as ways in which you can handle these penalties.

When are penalties charged?...



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How to request a Penalty Statement of Account

  Written by Alicia  

SARS have recently become a lot stricter with late filers and have changed their rules for administrative penalties. You can read more about these changes here.   There used to be some leeway for taxpayers who missed the deadline, but sadly these days are certainly over. 

If you received a notification of debt from...



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How to update your contact details on eFiling

  Written by Alicia  

Please read the steps below to update your contact details on your SARS eFilng profile:

1. Go to www.sarsefiling.co.za

2. Log into your eFiling profile:

3. Click on



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Tax on Pension Annuities

  Written by Neo  


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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How you can avoid load-shedding while reducing your tax bill

  Written by Patrick  

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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Navigating Tax Consequences for Social Media Influencers

  Written by Alicia  

In today's digital age, social media influencers wield significant influence and often enjoy lucrative partnerships with brands. However, amidst the glitz and glam, it's crucial for influencers to be aware of their tax obligations. In this blog post, we'll explore the tax consequences that social media influencers need to consider in South Africa. 

Understanding Tax Obligations

As a social media influencer in South Africa, it's essential to recognize that...



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How to Change/Verify Your Bank Details at SARS

  Written by Marc  


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:

  • in person at a SARS branch (During the pandemic, it would be best to make a telephonic appointment with SARS and then send them your supporting documents, SARS will cont...


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Unpacking the Foreign Employment Income Exemption

  Written by Neo  


This is the exemption is for employees that receives foreign employment income for services rendered outside of South Africa, provided that all the requirements are met.

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Top Questions on Income that is not taxed

  Written by Neo  


Exempt or non-taxable income refers to certain types of income, which is not subject to income tax.

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Navigating around your Allan Gray tax certificate (IT3c)

  Written by Neo  


1. This is the proceeds i.e  the value that your shares were sold for. This amount needs to be entered as proceeds in the  capital gains section of your tax return.

2. This is the base cost i.e the costs attached to the sale of your shares. This amount needs to be entered as the base cost in the  capital gains section of your tax return....



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How home office deduction impacts Capital Gains Tax

  Written by Neo  


With “flexible” employment being the new buzzword, more and more people are working part or all of the week from an office in their home.

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Tax Free Savings Accounts: Everything You Need to Know

  Written by Vee  

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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Do You Need to Ring-Fence Your Business or Rental Losses for Tax?

  Written by Vee  

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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Food for Thought on Subsistence Allowances

  Written by Vee  

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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I forgot to submit some documents to SARS - what must I do now?

  Written by Neo  


If you left out some documents in your original submission to SARS, don’t panic.

SARS has recently implemented a new process

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Capital Gains and Losses: which source codes to use?

  Written by Alicia  

In the Capital Gains section of the annual tax return (ITR12), SARS requires you to insert the relevant asset source code for the item you have sold.  However, when you sell financial investments (e.g shares)  the financial institution issues an IT3(c) which shows the profit/loss source code (i.e4250/4251) and not the asset source code.  This causes confusion for taxpayers, who think th...



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How to add your Company Tax Number to your eFiling profile

  Written by Patrick  

As part of SARS’ mission to simplify the eFiling system, the Tax Type Transfer process was updated in 2020 for all Tax products in a bid to offer users complete control of their eFiling profiles. 

What's new on eFiling?

 Overall, you can expect to see the following key changes introduced to eFiling from the end of April 2021: 

  • Changes to adding taxpayers to a profile (Organisations, Practitioners & individuals)
  • The removal of multiple capture fields to simplify the process
  • Validation requirements for captured information to ensure alignment to SARS records, e.g...


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