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Latest Posts in TaxTim's Blog

Have you ceased residency during the tax year?

  Written by Nicci  

SARS has made changes to the 2025 tax return to help taxpayers who ceased South African tax residency during the tax year. If this applies to you, your tax return will now include two parts:

Part 1: While you were still a South African tax resident



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Budget 2025: Tough Times Ahead

  Written by Nicci  

Although the latest budget avoids the steep VAT hike proposed last month, it still puts significant pressure on taxpayers.

All taxpayers will feel the pinch, as tax brackets and rebates have not been adjusted for inflation - for the second year in a row.

VAT is proposed to rise by 0.5 percentage point this year, with another increase planned for 2026, bringing it to 16%...



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Tax Season 2025: opening date and deadlines

  Written by Alicia  

The 2025 filing season opens this year on Monday, 21 July.  

This year, the tax season is even shorter than last year (and last year was shorter than the prior year!). This means that SARS are giving you less time to file your tax return.

Important Filing Deadlines

20 October 2025: Salary-only employees, who earn no other signficant income (i.e. non-provisional taxpayers) and ALL auto-assessed ...



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What you need to know about SARS auto-assessments

  Written by Patrick  


What is an auto-assessment?

This is an automatic assessment issued by SARS to certain taxpayers.

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Unpacking the Section 13sex Residential Unit Deduction

  Written by Nicci  

The Section 13sex residential unit deduction is a South African tax break for people who invest in new rental properties. If you build or buy new units to rent out, you can deduct part of the building cost from your taxable income each year. To qualify, you must own at least five new and unused residential units in South Africa that are used for rental.

You can claim 5% of the building cost



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What is a Financial Instrument?

  Written by Alicia  

What is a financial instrument according to SARS?

A financial instrument is a contract that represents money or something of value. For one party, it’s an asset (something valuable), and for the other party, it’s a liability (something owed) or equity (ownership).


According to SARS, a financial instrument is defined to include:

“a share, a member’s interest in a company, a debenture, a unit in a unit trust
scheme, a participatory interest in a portfolio of collective investments scheme, a...



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Why Is My Take-Home Pay Less Than My Gross Salary?

  Written by Alicia  

Have you ever noticed a difference between your contracted salary and the actual amount deposited into your bank account? This Q&A aims to clarify some common reasons for these discrepancies.
 
How do I know if my employer has deducted tax from my salary?
 
The monthly deposit into your bank account will likely be less than your gross salary. This is because your employer withholds Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) tax and other statutory deductions...


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Can I claim depreciation on a car I bought for my business?

  Written by Alicia  

If I run a small business and buy an asset like a vehicle for R200,000 (paid in full and not financed), can I deduct the full amount from my taxable income in the same year? Or do I only deduct the depreciation amount each year?

Also, do vehicles qualify for the 50/30/20% depreciation rule over three years like other small business assets?



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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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Why You May Owe Tax on Two-Pot Withdrawals

  Written by Nicci  

South Africa introduced the Two-Pot Retirement System to help people access part of their retirement savings before retirement age, while keeping the rest for retirement. It's a helpful system –  but it comes with tax rules that can surprise some people.

If you withdrew from your Two-Pot in the tax year, you need to include the details of this withdrawal in your annual tax return. The fund should have issued you an IRP5/IT3a tax certificate which reflects the withdrawal amount, related tax as well as the tax directive number issued by SARS...



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Understanding the Assets and Liabilities Section in Your Tax Return

  Written by Alicia  

The assets and liabilities section in the annual tax return (ITR12) needs to be completed if you:

  • earn self-employment income or are an independent contractor
  • earn foreign income (e.g foreign rental income or foreign business income)
  • are a Director of a company or a member of a Close Corporation

Each asset should be reported at its original cost — the amount you paid at the time of purchase or investment. According to SARS, these entrie...



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What Are Shares?

  Written by Nicci  

Shares represent ownership in a company. When you buy shares, you become a shareholder — meaning you own a small part of that company. Companies issue shares to raise money, and in return, investors get a chance to benefit from the company’s growth and profits.

There are two main ways to make money from shares:



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Investing 101: What is a Bond?

  Written by Nicci  

A bond is essentially a loan you give to a company, a municipality, or the government. It is a type of investment. When you buy a bond, you are lending money—and in return, they pay you interest as income and promise to pay back the original amount (called the capital) at a fixed date in the future.

Important: an "investment bond" is not to be confused with a "mortgage bond", which you...



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Foreign Employment Exemption Letter

  Written by Nicci  

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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FAQ: Provisional Tax

  Written by Nicci  

1. How many returns should I file each year if I am a provisional taxpayer?

You are required to file 3 returns i.e.  2 provisional tax returns (IRP6s) and one annual return (ITR12). The reason you need to file the annual return, too, is that your provisional returns are based on an estimate of your taxable income, while the annual return reflects your actual taxable income. Any provisional payments you have made for the year will be deducted from your final tax liability, which is calculated when you submit your annual tax return for assessment.

2...



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I missed filing the first provisional return - what should I do?

  Written by Alicia  

Provisional tax can be confusing, especially when it comes to the timing of payments. If you miss the first payment, do you need to catch it up, or can you just pay the second one? And what happens if you become a provisional taxpayer halfway through the year - are you still expected to file a first provisional tax return? In this post, we’ll attempt to clear up the confusion around first and second provisional tax payments.

Brief summary



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Why your estimated provisional tax may differ from your SARS Statement of Account

  Written by Alicia  

TaxTim uses the financial information which you entered  to work out the payment due on your provisional tax return (also called an IRP6). However, there may be some information we don’t have access to, which won’t be included in the estimate of your provisional tax payment. To see what SARS has on record, you will need to request a Provisio...



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Where can I find my provisional tax payment details?

  Written by Alicia  

During the final days of the provisional tax season, high traffic volumes may cause delays in submitting provisional tax returns to SARS—even after you've clicked 'submit' on our website.

To avoid late payment penalties, we recommend paying the estimated provisional tax amount shown on our website. Once your provisional tax return  (IRP6) appears in eFiling and your SARS provisional Statement o...



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How to cruise through a travel audit efficiently

  Written by Nicci  


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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FAQs: Travel expenses and Tax

  Written by Nicci  


Travel expenses and their tax impact are a complex issue for many. It’s no surprise that it’s a common theme on our Helpdesk.

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Finding your way around a SARS IRP5

  Written by Nicci  

Consult the image below to find all the tax-related information on your IRP5 that you will need when completing your annual tax return.

  1. PAYE number
  2. Income source codes
  3. Non-taxable income - source code 3696
  4. Gross Employment Income (taxable) – source code 3699
  5. Deduction source codes
  6. PAYE – source code 4102
  7. PAYE tax on lump sum benefit – source code 4115
  8. Employee and employer UIF contribution &...


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What Medical Expenses Can You Claim Back from Tax

  Written by Vee  


Medical expenses are nothing to sneeze at. Private medical treatment is increasingly pushing the limits of medical aid scheme

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What to do if your SARS document is blank

  Written by Elani  

Unfortunately, some of the SARS documents cannot be viewed online (i.e. from within your internet browser). You can work around this issue by downloading the SARS document to your computer.  You will then be able to view the document when opening it directly on your device.

 

Steps to follow if the SARS document is blank on your browser:

  1. Choose the option to download the document.
  2. Open the "Downloads" folder on your computer **.
  3. Sea...


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Cryptocurrency Income: Yes, you should be declaring it on your tax return!

  Written by Nicci  


As most of us know by now, cryptocurrency is not real but virtual money.

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How to request a Provisional Tax Statement of Account on eFiling

  Written by Alicia  

If you're a provisional taxpayer, you can request a statement of your provisional account on eFiling. However, instead of finding it on your Income Tax workpage, you first need to go to the Provisional Tax workpage. This can be tricky if you don't use eFiling often, so we've listed the steps below to help you.

STEP 1: Log into SARS eFiling



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