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Support for cell phone depreciation at SARS?



Anonymous says:
13 August 2015 at 12:35

What supporting documentation does SARS usually look for when assessing if depreciation/wear and tear on your cell phone is an allowable deduction. Please note that my cellphone is paid via a monthly contract fee. These contracts usually don't stipulate the base price of the phone. Furthermore, what support do you need to give them for the allocation of business use versus private use. I have tried to search and ask what they need as they wanted to verify this deduction, however, I cannot seem to find anything that says what they are looking for specifically, only that you need to prove it. They refused my deduction stating that if it happens again, I will have to pay a penalty, however still not mention of what specific documents/type of documents they are in fact looking for.

TaxTim TaxTim says:
13 August 2015 at 15:25

You would need to price your cellphone at the shop to determine the base cost. You can then make use of our Wear and Tear Calculator to work out the depreciation that you can claim for the year.
How to calculate Wear and Tear

You need to analyse your cellphone bill over the past few months to work out the proportion of personal usage versus business usage. You can use these records as support to substantiate your allocation.

Furthermore, your employer should stipulate in your contract that your personal cellphone should be used for work too or alternatively, he would need to provide such a letter if SARS do request supporting documentation from you to substantiate your wear and tear claim.

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