Tax Breaks For All
Posted 31 July 2018
What?
1.Rebates
Who?
Everybody
Primary, secondary, and tertiary rebates – depending on your age. A rebate is a set amount that SARS whacks off your total tax liability and basically represents the amount excluded by the minimum threshold to pay tax.
Primary rebate is for those under 65 years of age (on the last day of the tax year), the secondary rebate applies to those between 65 and 75 years old, and the tertiary rebate is added for those over 75 years old...
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Why have I received a smaller tax refund from SARS this year?
Posted 24 July 2018
We receive many queries from confused taxpayers who are disappointed to see their tax refunds are smaller than the refund received last year. Often, on the surface, their income and expense situation appears unchanged, so how can this be?
If you are one of these unhappy taxpayers, read on to see some common reasons why your tax refund could be less than last year.
Carried forward retirement contributions
This one is not obvious at all and confuses many taxpayers...
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Medical Aid Tax! How SARS' new changes affect YOU!
Posted 8 July 2018
In 2012 SARS began making changes to how medical expenses were treated for tax purposes. The system at that time created a higher benefit for deducted medical expenses if you earned a high income (bad news for low income earners) and the changes since then have sought to make medical deductions more equal across various income levels.
Basic summary of how SARS calculates your tax
Income Earned
Less: Expenses / Deductions
= Taxable Income
x SARS tax rate ...
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When Will SARS Pay My Tax Refund?
Posted 6 July 2018
Now that the 2018 tax season is open and hundreds of thousands of South Africans are filing their annual tax returns, every day people ask us “when will I get my refund from SARS?”.
While we’re not involved in the payments of tax refunds, we can provide a little insight into the SARS processes and timelines. So here goes …
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Get your digital tax health score to help you pay less tax
Posted 3 July 2018
TaxTim, which helps you to complete and file your tax returns online with the help of a digital tax expert called Tim, now offers a personalised tax health score report free which could help users pay less tax.
The score is the result of an in depth automated analysis of an individual’s tax return. It makes recommendations on how to improve tax health for maximum tax efficiency.
“For the first time, taxpayers will have a report card reflecting where they can improve their tax affairs and maximise efficiency...
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What to expect in 2018 after submitting your tax return to SARS
Posted 1 July 2018
As soon as
tax season opens in July, many taxpayers rush to submit their
ITR12 tax returns as early as possible, eagerly hoping for a nice refund. After the rush, when nothing happens, they often ask us what is happening to their refund? In most cases where an income tax refund is due to a taxpayer, SARS pays it out within one or two days...
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Individual Tax Rate Tables
Posted 18 June 2018
RATES OF TAX FOR INDIVIDUALS
2019 tax year (1 March 2018 - 28 February 2019) - see changes from last year
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How to calculate totals under source codes 3696 and 3699 for 2018
Posted 13 June 2018
Perhaps you just tried to submit your tax return and you instantly got an error relating to 3696 and 3699. As frustrating as it could be, don’t worry the error can be fixed. Maybe, you might have just simply left an amount out. Let’s have a look at what you should do, in order to crack these codes correctly – in that way making filing much more easier for you.
You’ll need to check your
IRP5 to make sure you answered TaxTim's questions for these amounts correctly...
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How to calculate totals under source codes 3696 and 3699 for 2017
Posted 12 June 2018
Perhaps you just tried to submit your tax return and you instantly got an error relating to 3696 and 3699. As frustrating as it could be, don’t worry the error can be fixed. Maybe, you might have just simply left an amount out. Let’s have a look at what you should do, in order to crack these codes correctly – in that way making filing much more easier for you.
You’ll need to check your
IRP5 to make sure you answered TaxTim's questions for these amounts correctly. Your IRP5 can show one or more amounts with source codes describing the income you received from your employer that year. ...
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Medical Aid contributions paid on behalf of a dependent
Posted 4 June 2018
Date
Taxpayer's Full Name
Address
To Whom It May Concern,
Subject: medical aid contributions paid on behalf of a dependant
This letter serves to confirm that I, ________________________(taxpayer's full name), __________________________(ID number) am contributing to a medical aid on behalf of _______________________________(name of dependant),___________________(ID number). He/she is/is not financially dependent on me a...
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Foreign Employment Exemption Letter
Posted 4 June 2018
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. ...
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Use of personal devices for work letter
Posted 4 June 2018
COMPANY LETTERHEAD
Date
Employee's Full Name
Address
To Whom It May Concern,
Subject: Permission to use personal items for work purposes
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 use the following personal items for work purposes:
Item: 1...
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Home Office Letter
Posted 4 June 2018
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 home in order to fulfil his/her duties to the company. ...
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Letters you may need to provide to SARS
Posted 4 June 2018
After submission of your tax return, SARS may request certain documents from you.
These may include a letter if you claimed any of the following deductions:
-
Home Office-
Wear and Tear on personal devices used for work e.g laptop or cellphone.
-
Foreign Employment Income Exemption...
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How Do Taxpayers Feel About The Proposed New Filing Deadline?
Posted 28 May 2018
On Monday 21st May, TaxTim conducted a simple survey of taxpayers who make use of the TaxTim services about their opinion on SARS’ proposal to shorten the tax filing season by 3 weeks.
An email was sent out containing the following:
“SARS recently published a Draft Notice of who needs to file a tax return and when tax returns will be due for the 2018 tax season. SARS are planning to move the submission deadline 3 weeks earlier to 31st October 2018 for all non-provisional taxpayers. ...
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What supporting documents do I need to submit to SARS?
Posted 28 May 2018
After submission of your tax return, when you receive your tax assessment (ITA34) from SARS, you need to scan down to the block “Compliance Information” to see if SARS requires anything further from you. You will see “Selected for audit or verification” with a Y or N (Yes or No) next to it. If you have a N, you can breathe a sigh of relief and consider yourself fortunate that SARS probably doesn’t require anything further from you for this tax year. If you have a Y in the block (and we are seeing this more and more frequently) it means that SARS wants to see evidence or back up which supports the amounts you entered on your tax return....
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The Less Common Tax Deductions
Posted 14 May 2018
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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I work for someone, but did not receive an IRP5 - what should I do?
Posted 14 May 2018
You may be employed by someone, but for one reason or another- you don't receive an IRP5 and no amount of begging or pleading will result in one being produced. If you're one of these “IRP5-less” individuals, this shouldn’t keep you from completing your tax return.
Below are some situations where taxpayers will not receive an IRP5 - read on to find out if any of these apply to you and if so, what to do about it.
1. You work overseas for a foreign employer.
If you work overseas for a foreign employer and no tax is deducted from your salary in South Africa, you will not receive an IRP5...
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Be smart and save tax when receiving income from an Airbnb
Posted 14 May 2018
Taxpayers who earn Airbnb income often don’t know what they need to do when it comes to declaring this income to SARS. Sometimes taxpayers think that they don’t have to declare this extra income, or can hide it from SARS by not entering it on their tax return form - a big mistake!
The truth is that extra income earned from Airbnb income is taxable, and SARS needs to know about it. In some cases - if the amount earned (profit) outside of a salary is larger than R30,000 a y...
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10 Tips to Pay Less Tax
Posted 25 April 2018
These tips are part of TaxTim's personalised recommendation tool called the Tax Health Score. Once you file your tax return with TaxTim, we analyze it and produce your own unique Tax Health Score which recommends how you can optimize deductions, pay less tax and maximize your potential refund in the future.
The tips below cover all possible recommendations and may not be applicable to your individual tax situation. The only way to know which ones apply to you is to use TaxTim to complete and submit your tax return....
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The 3 R's: Returns, Rebates and Refunds Explained
Posted 20 March 2018
When it comes to tax jargon, most people prefer to bury their heads in the sand instead of trying to understand all the confusing terms that tax practitioners use. Taxpayers just want to do their tax quickly and easily, and if they’re due - receive some money back from SARS. A lot of confusion surrounds the process, but by understanding three simple terms you can make tax season a little bit easier.
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How to make a payment via eFiling
Posted 15 March 2018
There are two ways of making a payment to SARS. What's good is, whatever method you prefer, you can choose the one that's best suited for you. Of the two payment methods, one is via
EFT and the other via your eFiling profile. For the rest of this blog we will show you steps to follow when making payments the electronic way, via eFiling.
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Budget Speech: VAT rises by 1%, predictions were correct!
Posted 21 February 2018
Taxpayers should breathe a sigh of relief as a much lower than expected R36bn in increased taxes was announced by the once-off Minister of Finance. The biggest news amongst the increases was the VAT rise of 1%. For the first time in 25 years, all South Africans will see most goods and services become a little bit more expensive thanks to the Value Added Tax rise. Although controversial, a VAT rise was much needed and will bring in almost R23...
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Mirror Mirror on the Wall, Where Do We Look to Plug the Shortfall?
Posted 19 February 2018
By now we are all aware that it is more than likely that SARS will miss its 2018 revenue collection target that it set a year ago by R51bn. The budget deficit (i.e. the gap between government expenditure and income) for the first eight months of the tax year from April to November 2017 widened to a record R195 billion as tax collections lagged due to a slowing economy, low business confidence and a possible slippage in compliance by taxpayers. Sadly, there’s no light at the end of the tunn...
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I've raised a dispute: Do I need to pay?
Posted 14 February 2018
Many disgruntled taxpayers are receiving SMS’s from SARS who threaten legal action if they don’t pay their outstanding tax debt.
However, these same taxpayers raised a dispute/lodged an objection because they didn’t agree with the SARS assessment and are still waiting for the dispute to be resolved.
This can take up to 60 working days and in many cases, even longer. In fact if the dispute was raised at the end of last year, SARS will take even longer because the period 15 December to 15 Janaury is excluded from the 60 day review period!...
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