Ten Tips to Pay Less Tax

Updated 11 July 2024

These tips are part of TaxTim's personalised recommendation tool called the Tax Health Score.

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How to Change/Verify Your Bank Details at SARS

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:

• 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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Top Questions on Income that is not taxed

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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The Ins and Outs of Donations Tax

Updated 19 March 2024

Have you been the lucky recipient of a gift or donation from a generous family member or friend? Perhaps they struck it lucky on the Lotto and decided to share their winnings with you!

Or maybe you're the giving type and have donated cash, shares or even property to someone you felt deserved a little boost.

Irrespective of whether you're the giver or receiver of a donation or gift, it's good to understand donations from a tax perspective, and how to declare these to SARS.

Ready to find out?

Let's get started.

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10 Tips to Pay Less Tax

Posted 18 August 2021

These tips are part of TaxTim's personalised recommendation tool called the Tax Health Score. Once you file your tax return with TaxTim,

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Do I earn enough to have to pay tax?

Posted 23 April 2020

Why must I pay tax, I don’t earn enough! Will I get a penalty if I don’t disclose all my income to SARS?

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Tax Breaks For All

Posted 21 April 2020

What?

1.Rebates

Who?
Everybody

Primary, secondary, and tertiary rebates – depending on your age.

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FAQs: Donations and Tax

Posted 15 April 2020

Have you recently received a present or a donation from a wealthy family member or a friend? Or, maybe you've just donated money to support a child in need?

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10 Ways to Spend Your Tax Refund

Posted 8 April 2020

It’s tax season, and one of the most compelling reasons to file a tax return (besides the fact that it’s the law, of course) is the chance that you’ve

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Donations FAQs

Posted 22 February 2017

Are donations to political parties’ tax deductible?
They are deductible if the political party is a registered Public Benefit Organisation/Not-For-Profit and is registered with SARS.

Are church donations deductible?
The church should give you a receipt with a PBO/NPO/NPC number, if they don't have a number then you cannot claim the deduction. The number needs to start with a 9. It should be either 9 or 10 digits. 

Foreign gift in the form of donation OR Donation from overseas OR Informing SARS of inheritance OR Donations received from overseas...

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SARS is asking for more documents. Are they auditing me?

Posted 13 August 2012

For most people upon submission of their year-end income tax return, either nothing much will happen or a refund will be due, this being paid back within a matter of days. However in a small number of cases SARS requires extra documentation or proof to be submitted so that they can verify that everything you submitted in your tax return is correct. Don’t be afraid, although many people consider this an “audit” it isn’t nearly as frightening as that and doesn't mean you have done anything wrong. A true audit would be SARS requesting years of past documentation and opening up for examination all your tax affairs from previous years. ...

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How do I calculate my earnings after tax? Try our income tax calculator

Posted 6 June 2012

Most employees negotiate their salary based on the gross amount (or cost to company) - the whole amount paid by their employer. Since income tax is deducted from this gross amount, in most cases the taxpayer doesn't know how much money actually goes into their bank account each month, after tax.

SARS levies employee's tax monthly and employers must pay that over to SARS every month. This tax is called PAYE (Pay As You Earn). PAYE is calculated based on your taxable income. This is different to your gross income and is calculated as follows: ...

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"Claim it back from Tax" The Fact behind the Fiction

Posted 14 February 2012

There is this misconception that if one has an expense or makes a donation then “it can be claimed back from tax” While to the non-tax literate this may be true in a sense, having expenses or making donations for this purpose only, could actually backfire from a cash flow point of view. It is correct that you can claim the expense or the donation made as a deduction, this amount only comes off after all your income has been declared. So in affect it only reduces your taxable income and therefore the amount of tax paid...

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