South Africa rolled out the Two-Pot Retirement System on 1 September, 2024. It applies to any South African who has a pension fund, provident fund or retirement annuity fund.
The Two-Pot Retirement System allows you to access a limited portion of your retirement savings before retirement for emergencies, while the majority of your savings remains "preserved". This means the larger part of your savings must stay invested until you reach retirement.
The goal of South Africa's ne...
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SARS 2024 tax season dates:
15 July 2024 to 21 October 2024: individual (non-provisional) taxpayers
15 July 2024 to 20 January 2025: 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 2024.
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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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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Taking a closer look at why taxpayers may be required to pay in tax on pensions or annuities on assessment and how they can avoid a repetition of this each year.
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Imagine you’re an estate agent or luxury car salesman. Chances are that you don’t earn much (if anything) as a basic salary and you rely on a few big deals and commission payments to keep you afloat during quieter months.
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Retirement annuities are tax-smart investments that help you to save for life after your nine-to-five. You generally can’t withdraw these funds before you turn 55, but you may be able to do so if you’ve emigrated from South Africa.
A retirement annuity – or RA for short – is an investment vehicle designed to help people living and working in South Africa save towards retirement. It can be used as a...
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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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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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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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Medical expenses are nothing to sneeze at. Private medical treatment is increasingly pushing the limits of medical aid scheme
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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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Imagine you’re an estate agent or luxury car salesman. Chances are that you don’t earn much (if anything) as a basic salary
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You may have seen the word PAYE on your IRP5 payslip or heard it mentioned by your employer, but have no idea of its meaning.
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At TaxTim, we receive many questions from taxpayers about retirement funds and tax.
One of the biggest benefits of contributing towards a retirement fund is the tax break.
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By Rowan Burger from Momentum Investments
The benefits of saving your money are well known and encouraged by many financial institutions
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We receive many queries from confused taxpayers who are disappointed to see their tax refunds are smaller than the refund received last year.
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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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Personal Tax Rates (rates below)
Individuals across the country, those qualifying above the new tax threshold of R75 750 (previously R75 000) will be paying increased taxes of R16.5bn (previously R5.65bn in actual tax increase) for the next tax year, most of this will be for high income earners, however. Taxpayers generally across the board will be earning the tiniest bit more money each year as their tax brackets...
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The 24th of February 2016 was supposed to be a watershed moment for the Economy of South Africa. The old-new Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan, was to deliver his budget for the 2016/2017 tax year and save South Africa from a financial pit-fall in the form of an International Ratings Agency downgrade. The jury is still out on whether or not this is possible. Immediately after the budget was revealed the Rand tumbled 2%, which doesn’t bode well for market sentiment. However, ...
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If you’re diligently putting money away for your retirement in the form of a pension, provident fund or retirement annuity, you may be curious – perhaps even a touch concerned – about the changes SARS has made to the retirement fund tax laws, which come into effect on 1 March 2016.
If you missed the news, here's a quick overview.
SARS have changed how contributions to retirement funds are treated from a tax perspective, as well as how your funds are managed when you retire...
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