Filing a tax return for the first time can be a daunting task. To get you started, we’ve gone back to the basics
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Exempt or non-taxable income refers to certain types of income, which is not subject to income tax.
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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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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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If you’re an individual non-provisional taxpayer, make sure you file your tax return before or on the deadline of 2 December 2021.
SARS is warning that those who fail to submit on time, will face penalties. Legislation has changed and you will have to pay penalties in January 2022 if you have not submitted one or more of your returns. This means that if you file your 2021 return after the deadline, SARS will levy an admin penalty.
Before, you only paid penalties when two...
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Companies issue stock options (also called share options) to key employees in order to attract and retain talent.
A stock option is different from a share – a stock option is the right to acquire a share at a specific date in the future at a set price.
For example, when John joins Company A, he is granted 5000 stock options at a price of R55 per stock option. Assume that Company A’s share price rises to R75, he will make a profit of R20 per option when he is allowe...
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A tax directive is super useful when you earn commission, variable income or are going to receive a large bonus or a lump sum.
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Thousands of people have lost their jobs as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and the nationwide lockdown to slow the spread of the disease.
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There is a section in the tax return called ‘Other Deductions’ which often causes confusion for taxpayers
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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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It’s not all doom and gloom when it comes to the rising costs of medical expenses. You can expect some tax relief if you contribute to a medical aid and if you spend a certain amount on ‘out of pocket’ expenses.
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We receive many questions from taxpayers about how to declare their income in the event that they are married in Community of Property (CoP).
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With the first provisional return still fresh in the minds of taxpayers, we thought it would be a good time to highlight some questions that were asked to our Helpdesk last month.
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Our helpdesk receives hundreds of questions from commission earners about how their tax is calculated. Many are also confused about which expenses they can claim. Hopefully our FAQ will help other taxpayers who might be puzzling over the same issues.
1. I have a salary and earn a small commission; can I claim for my travel to and from work every day? (The commission is based on the sales that my team makes telephonically per month).
Should the commiss...
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By now you would have seen the latest announcement by the SARS commissioner to increase the qualifying threshold for certain taxpayers
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There are times when the call centre agent from SARS is unable to resolve your issue and you need to reach out to a more senior person at SARS.
You can request to speak to a team leader / operations manager or the branch / call centre manager and they should be able to assist you. Always remember to note down the case number for your call. If however, you're not satisfied with the outcome of the issue, you can lodge a formal complaint with an agent at a SARS branch or on eFiling (if y...
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This week we zoom into Wear and Tear also commonly known as Depreciation. Below we've covered some of the top questions we've received from our Helpdesk. Take a quick read through our Q&As and see how your pressing depreciation questions can potentially be solved.
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It’s that time of the year again and employers are issuing their employees IRP5s for the tax year. An IRP5 is a tax certificate which shows the total employment income that you earned for the tax year, the total employment related deductions that were taken from your income and paid over to either a retirement fund (pension, provident or retirement annuity fund) or a medical aid and the total tax (PAYE, UIF and SDL) that you paid...
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If you are an Uber driver, you use your own vehicle/s to generate your income and you determine your own working hours, you will be treated as being self-employed (i.e. an independent contractor) for tax purposes.
Since you do not earn a salary, you should be registered as a provisional taxpayer with SARS.
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Below we take a look at Capital Gains Tax, particularly relating to the primary residence exclusion. What we’ve covered are some of the most pressing questions asked by our users on our help-desk. Take a few minutes to read the Q&As. Hopefully what has been unpacked in these Q&As will benefit and assist you with any uncertainties you might have experienced regarding this topic.
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It's always wonderful to win a prize or a competition – however, many people don’t realise there may be tax consequences attached.
This week we thought it would be helpful to remind you what to look out for, should you be the lucky recipient of one of the below:
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We receive many relevant questions from our users about what they can claim as a tax deduction if they or one of their dependants suffers from a disability. This week, we will focus on this issue and hopefully help other taxpayers out there who may have the same questions.
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This week we received some questions from our users on retirement fund contributions and the laws that govern it. We hope that this helps you as you start gathering your documents for the new tax season.
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If you own a rental property, then this week’s top questions are specifically for you! Read on to find out more.
1. We paid off our home loan 5 years ago - nil balance due. However, we will have the loan available to borrow from as the term of the loan is not complete (we still have 90 months left).
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