In order to complete the Medical section of your annual tax return, you will need a tax certificate from your medical scheme (if you contributed to a medical scheme that is!).
This certificate details exactly how much was paid to the medical aid for yourself and your dependents over the course of the tax year (1 March to end Feb). It also details how much money you paid for other medical expenses, such as medicines and doctors expenses, which you claimed for, but your medical aid did NOT cover...
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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
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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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There are various types of taxes with their own special return forms and deadlines.
SARS recently announced the 2022 tax season dates:
01 July 2022 to 24 October 2022: individual (non-provisional) taxpayers
01 July 2022 to 23 January 2023: provisional taxpayers
If you earn less than R500 000 in a year, and fulfill a series of complicated criteria, you may not have to file a tax return in 2022.
However, we advise you to take GREAT CARE here, and understand your duties properly, because if you don't, you may suffer for it later on.
Here are the top 5 reasons why you should not skip filing your tax return this season:
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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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IRP5 documents come in all sorts of formats. Luckily there are only a handful of companies that produce IRP5s, so most of them follow a similar format.
Click on the format that matches your IRP5 below and we will show you where to find all the amounts you need for your tax return.
OPTION 1: SARS format 
...
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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 h...
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The Public Servants Association (PSA) served SARS with a notice of strike action on Friday, 13 May 2022. The strike is due to take place on Wednesday, 25 May 2022.
The union is demanding a CPI plus 7% across the board, while the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (NEHAWU) demands an increase of 11.5%. The unions and SARS hit a deadlock as SARS unashamedly made a final offer of a 0% increase.
If there is no resolution at the Com...
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According to SARS commissioner Edward Kieswetter, some South Africans who came into money were eager to “display their wealth”, giving cause for SARS to look into the income of these individuals.
In many cases, SARS found that there was a major disconnect between the income that was being declared and the type of lifestyle that these individuals were leading, according to third-party data. These include social media platforms.
As we already know, people are often i...
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For months, SARS has been clear about its plan to clamp down on crypto investors. While many may be under the impression that crypto is going under the radar, SARS is firmly taking the position that it is not.
With luxury audits being the order of the day, SARS is continuously looking into those who live luxurious lifestyles, particular those who own luxury cars and crypto assets, without declaring their income to the revenue service.
In many cases, this income pertains to the...
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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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Ensure you have a tax number & eFiling profile
If you have not registered for SARS eFiling or you don't have a tax number don’t worry, SARS has made things a lot easier this year.
Getting a tax number is now as easy as registering on SARS eFiling. Simply click here and if you don’t have a personal income tax number yet, SARS will automatically issue ...
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Once you’ve completed filing your tax return, it’s possible to find that instead of getting money back
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Let’s face it, SARS didn’t make it easy for taxpayers to claim their home office expenses this past tax season. We can’t blame them really - being faced with millions of newbie work-from-homers, they had to weed out the legitimate claims from the chancers.
At the start of the season, they made it clear that they would only allow claims for taxpayers who had a separate office at home, set up specifically for their work, which was used by them alone. The office could n...
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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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If you think earning an income from a global source isn’t taxable on home soil, I’m afraid I have some bad news. Whether you’re earning Dollars, Euros or Yen, as a South African, it’s more than likely you’ll have to pay tax on this income. This is because South Africa’s taxation system works on a residence-based tax system meaning we’re taxed on worldwide income.
There is, however, some good news!
Section 10 of the Income Tax Act offers a list of conditions where foreign remuneration earned (up to R1,25m) for services rendered outside of South Africa borders will be exempt from income tax.
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As a taxpayer, it's crucial that you're aware of scams that aim to defraud taxpayers. The
festive season is almost here and every year, criminals use people’s financial desperation to
enrich themselves.
So-called ‘tax experts’ will contact you with promises of making your life easier by securing
a tax refund on your behalf. When you use their services, they pocket your money and
disappear, never responding to your messages and calls.
SARS has received a flood of calls from victims of this scam in the past and is warning...
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Seasoned provisional taxpayers – those people who earn income from sources other than, or in addition to a regular ol' salary or traditional payment from an employer - are all too familiar with the process of estimating taxable income and submitting provisional tax returns. Not once - but twice a year!
Yes, it's a bit painful (although TaxTim makes it super easy) but entirely necessary if you don't want to be lumped with penalties from SARS...
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When planning your wedding, it’s highly unlikely that anything related to tax features on your agenda. However, when saying “I do” it’s very important to understand the tax laws associated with marriage because SARS treats income differently according to the type of marriage contract that binds you and your spouse.
Marriage in Community of Property
If you marry without an antenuptial contract, you’ll by default be married in community of property...
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Finance Minister, Enoch Godongwana, delivered his maiden budget speech on 23 February.
The speech started by indicating that there are still high risks to the economy, which is slowly recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic. The budget reasserts the commitment made in the 2021 MTBPS to set the economy’s course towards growth and fiscal sustainability.
It was announced that employment support will also be extended to the most vulnerable, service delivery shortcomings would ...
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All eyes were on Finance Minister, Enoch Godongwana, when he delivered his maiden budget speech to South Africans yesterday. Taxpayers breathed a sigh of relief when he announced that there would be no major tax hikes. This was welcome news for South Africans who are dealing with the effects of Covid-19, rising inflation, interest rate hikes and significant fuel price increases. 'Now is not the time to increase taxes' - thank you Mr Minister, we couldn't agree with you more!
The minister announced that SARS had brought in R182 billion more in taxes than had been predicted last year in February...
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In 2020, about 2.2 million jobs were lost in South Africa and in 2021, that number is expected to double as a result of Covid-19. With that, we have found that there are many questions surrounding the subject of taxes and severance packages. Here’s everything you need to know.
The Basic Conditions of Employment Act states that your severance pay should include at least one week’s worth of remuneration for every full year of work. Your severance package may consist of your ...
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Have you found yourself with a huge tax bill at the end of the tax year, and no money to pay it? SARS is making your life easier by changing the way it does tax deductions on your retirement fund from 1 March 2022.
You may receive several annuities or pensions from your previous employer or pension fund. In the past, your fund used to look at each income source separately when working out your tax.
The separate amounts you received probably fell bel...
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President Cyril Ramaphosa made the following key announcements in the State of the Nation Address (SoNA) he delivered on 10 February 2022.
Economic issues were high on the Agenda. There is recognition that unemployment, poverty, and inequality need to be addressed to create conditions for long-term stability and development. New energy generation projects were once again promised.
Progress is being made with Covid-19 vaccinations. Thirty million doses have been administered, w...
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