Written by Marc
Updated 10 April 2024
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:
Written by Neo
Updated 9 April 2024
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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Written by Neo
Updated 20 March 2024
Exempt or non-taxable income refers to certain types of income, which is not subject to income tax.
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Written by Neo
Updated 20 March 2024
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....
Written by Neo
Updated 19 March 2024
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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Written by Vee
Updated 19 March 2024
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...
Written by Vee
Updated 19 March 2024
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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Written by Vee
Updated 19 March 2024
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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Written by Neo
Updated 14 March 2024
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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Written by Alicia
Posted 8 March 2024
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...
Written by Patrick
Updated 7 March 2024
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.
Overall, you can expect to see the following key changes introduced to eFiling from the end of April 2021:
Written by Nicci
Posted 21 February 2024
South Africans were bracing themselves for bad news when Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana delivered his budget speech yesterday. However, in line with expectations during an election year, he delivered the reassuring news that there would be no significant tax hikes, no VAT increase, and no introduction of a new wealth tax. Contrary to earlier speculation, the medical tax rebate is also set to stay for a while longer.
However, this positive news is not without consequences. As South ...
Written by Nicci
Updated 5 February 2024
If you belong to a Medical Aid, there is important information on your medical aid tax certificate which needs to be included in your tax return.
This will ensure you receive the medical aid tax credit that is due to you.
Do you belong to any of the below medical aids?
- Bankmed
- Bonitas...
Written by Neo
Updated 22 January 2024
1. Keep an accurate record of revenue and expenses
You can draw up these records by way of a simple spreadsheet based on your invoices and then confirm these amounts by cross-checking them against your bank statement.
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Written by Alicia
Updated 22 November 2023
Written by Alicia
Updated 21 November 2023
The CIPC recently (1 April 2023) implemented a new register called the Beneficial Ownership (BO) register in an attempt to establish who owns or exercise control over which companies.
In layman’s terms, BO in respect of a company means, an individual who, directly or indirectly, ultimately owns that company or exercises effective control over that company for tax or financial purposes.
This new register is to assist law enforcement with relevant information when it comes...
Written by Marc
Updated 21 November 2023
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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Written by Alicia
Updated 21 November 2023
Each time SARS makes changes on eFiling or with their standard operating procedures, TaxTim has to adjust its systems and processes. We usually receive no warning of these technical changes. During this time, some of our users might feel a need to abandon our service and either seek help elsewhere or go and queue at SARS.
We understand this may cause frustration, however we will not refund you in cases where you have worked your way through every section of the TaxTim dialogue a...
Written by Alicia
Posted 17 November 2023
During the tax year, SARS issued SMS's to taxpayer whom they chose to auto-assess.
Those selected individuals would typically be taxpayers earning fixed salaries without additional allowances. If they did have medical aid and retirement annuity fund contributions, these details would have already been sent to SARS by their service providers, and SARS should have automatically included them in the assessment.
We've received many questions on our help desk where users say that t...
Written by Elani
Updated 15 November 2023
It is important to note that verifications and audits are two different processes. In a simple explanation, verification is the "straightforward" process to confirm if the information you declared on your tax return is true and correct, whilst an audit is where the tax return is under deeper investigation which means they look at the finer details.
Supporting documents request
If SARS decides to review your tax return, they will notify you via a SARS let...
Written by Neo
Updated 13 November 2023
Nowadays, work culture has evolved massively and “Flexible employment” has become the new buzzword. This is especially relevant at the moment, where many employees are still working from home due to the global Corona virus outbreak of 2020.
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Written by Neo
Updated 7 November 2023
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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Written by Alicia
Posted 6 November 2023
If your 2023 individual income tax return was auto-assessed by SARS earlier this year, and you intended to include extra income or expenses/ deductions but missed the deadline, don't be dismayed, there might still be a way to fix things!
Is SARS rejecting your tax return submission and your dispute too?
Have you requested an extension, but SARS granted it for a day before they replied to you? i.e, you asked for an extension till 10 November 2023, but SARS gave you an extension...
Written by Patrick
Posted 5 October 2023
A pressing concern for many South Africans is whether or not the taxman gets a chunk of the money when the life insurance policy pays out. It’s a big stress factor to wonder how big the tax portion will be and how much will be left over for your family especially in a time when they need it the most. But here's some good news as of 2023: life insurance payouts usually don't get taxed. That means your loved ones get to keep the whole amount, giving everyone a bit of comfort.
&nbs...
Written by Patrick
Posted 5 October 2023
While it might seem like a morbid topic at first, understanding life insurance is pretty important to safeguarding your family's financial future. Life insurance is about more than just providing for your loved ones after you're no longer around, it is the cornerstone of financial stability during hard times like illness or disability as it protects your income. Think of it as a protective bubble that will ensure your family's financial well-being, no matter what life throws your way.
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