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I have received an Additional Assessment from SARS - what does this mean?

  Written by Nicci  


After you have submitted your supporting documents to SARS, they have 21 working days to review them, assuming all sufficient documents have been received.  Once their review is complete, you will either:

  1. Receive a request for additional documents; or
  2. Receive a Completion Letter; or,
  3. Receive an Additional Assessment

Additional Documents Request

If SARS still requires for documents from you, they will either send ...



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What does a Completion Letter from SARS mean?

  Written by Marc  

Completion Letter

You will receive a Completion Letter if all goes well and SARS is happy with your documents. This means that SARS is not adjusting your Original Assessment and if you have a refund due, it should be paid out in 72 hours (provided you have no tax debt due or outstanding tax returns from prior years). Similarly, if you owe tax to SARS per your Original Assessment, the amount you owe will remain unchanged.

An example of a Compl...



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I've never been audited before. Why now?

  Written by Nicci  


This is a common area of concern for many taxpayers who don’t know why they are asked to submit documents to SARS after they file their tax return.

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What supporting documents do I need to submit to SARS?

  Written by Nicci  


After submission of your tax return, when you receive your tax assessment (ITA34) from SARS, you need to scan down to the block “Compliance Information” to see if SARS requires anything further from you. You will see “Selected for audit or verification” with a Y or N (Yes or No) next to it. If you have a N, you can breathe a sigh of relief and consider yourself fortunate that SARS probably doesn’t require anything further from you for this tax year. If you have a Y in the block (and we are seeing this more and more frequently) it means that SARS wants to see evidence or back up which supports the amounts you entered on your tax return....



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5 Reasons you Still Need to File your Tax Return

  Written by Evan  


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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Vacation Home - What do I submit/declare in my Personal Tax Return?

  Written by Alicia  

I bought a house December 2023, which are rented out as a vacation home. This is my first house that I bought and do not know what I need to submit/declare in my Personal Tax Return for 2024. Can you please assist?

The 3 R's: Returns, Rebates and Refunds Explained

  Written by Marc  


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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Ten Tips to Pay Less Tax

  Written by Nicci  


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

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How long do I have to wait for my tax refund?

  Written by Vee  


Like in previous years, there have always been opening tax season niggles and 2024 has been no different. Patience is a virtue, so the adage goes.

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Where can I get my Medical Scheme Tax Certificate?

  Written by Evan  

In order to complete the Medical section of your annual tax return, you will need a tax certificate from your medical scheme (if you contributed to a medical scheme that is!).

This certificate details exactly how much was paid to the medical aid for yourself and your dependents over the course of the tax year (1 March to end Feb). It also details how much money you paid for other medical expenses, such as medicines and doctors expenses, which you claimed for, but your medical aid did NOT cover...



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Why must I submit an IRP5/IT3a if I never received any lump sum cash?

  Written by Nicci  


We receive many questions from taxpayers who are confused as to why they receive an IRP5/IT3a for retirement fund withdrawals or transfers and how to report this (if at all) in their tax return. If this applies to you, read on and let us clarify the issue for you.

IRP5/IT3a for retirement fund withdrawal, resignation or transfer

If you withdraw money or retire from your retirement fund and receive a lumpsum, the fund will have to apply for a tax directive for you and should also issue you an IRP5/IT3a...



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Use of personal devices for work letter

  Written by Nicci  

COMPANY LETTERHEAD



Date
Employee's Full Name
Address

 

To Whom It May Concern,


Subject: Permission to use personal items for work purposes

This letter serves to confirm that _______________________________(Name of employee), ___________________________(ID number) who is employed by our firm ___________________( company name) in the capacity of__________________________(Position) has permission to use  the following personal items for work purposes:

 

Item: 1...



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I work for someone, but did not receive an IRP5 - what should I do?

  Written by Nicci  


You may be employed by someone, but for one reason or another- you don't receive an IRP5 and no amount of begging or pleading

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The Less Common Tax Deductions

  Written by Nicci  


We’re aware that sometimes taxpayers may not understand all of the deductions which appear on the tax return. And because of this, expenses that could have been deducted get missed. To help make things easier for you, we’ve explained some of these less understood tax deductions which may be overlooked by taxpayers.  They all appear in the Other Deductions section of the ITR12.

The s11(nA) and s11(nB)
If an employee is in breach of an agreement with their employer, they may be asked to pay back a benefit they received from them e.g bonus, maternity leave benefit, bursary, sign on bonus etc. ...



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Home Office Letter

  Written by Nicci  

COMPANY LETTERHEAD



Date
Employee's Full Name
Address

 

 To Whom It May Concern,

Subject: Permission to work from home

This letter serves to confirm that _______________________________ (Name of employee), _____________________ (ID number) who is employed by our firm ___________________ (Company name) in the capacity of __________________________ (Position) has permission to work from h...



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FAQS: SARS eFiling

  Written by Nicci  


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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I have received a SARS admin penalty - what do I do now?

  Written by Nicci  

SARS have recently become a lot stricter about levying administrative penalties. These are penalties for missing the deadline to submit your tax return. You can read about these recent changes in the law here.

If you have outstanding/un-filed tax returns from prior years, chances are high that SARS will have slapped on administrative penalties.

You may have recentl...



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Cannot access refund due to a special stopper

  Written by Alicia  

SARS owes me a refund but according to the call centre they placed a stopper on my tax account and now need to see proof of the payment I made that caused the refund. I did make this payment, but the bank account I used to pay it to SARS has since closed.
How else can I prove that I did in fact make this payment?

Can I claim home office expenses I incurred in 2020 a few years later?

  Written by Alicia  

Good day,

I am writing to ask if it would be possible to make corrections to 2020 tax return assessment. I would like to include the home office expenses claim as I did work from home during the covid 19 lock down period.

Looking forward to your response.

Depreciation on furniture bought for rental property

  Written by Alicia  

I bought furniture for R 172 000 back in 2018 for my rental property. This was bought through the developer as part of a rental pool offering. Rental pool contract stating furniture costs, e-mail clarifications and proof of payment for this is in my possession but not the actual receipts or individual pricing for the items. According to the TaxTim depreciation calculator, I can claim around R 28 600 in 2022 tax year. My question is, can I claim this with the documentation in my possession and ca...



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Update Banking Details for a refund from SARS

  Written by Alicia  

Good morning,

I am no longer banking with the bank I used during 2023 and am trying to update my details on SARS eFiling. So far, I have successfully added my new bank and this has been verified by SARS. However, I am unable to remove my old banking details, and select my new bank as the primary transaction account for payments from SARS. Do I need to wait to file my 2024 tax return to effect this change?

Tax Season 2024: opening date and deadlines

  Written by Nicci  

The 2024 filing season opens this year on Monday, 15 July.  

Tihs 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

21 October 2024: salaried employees, who earn no other income (i.e non-provisional taxpayers)

20 January 2025: self-emplo...



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How to add a registered representative to your company with SARS

  Written by Alicia  

In previous years, it was relatively easy to add a company to your eFiling profile, whether it was an Organization or Tax Practitioner profile.

However, since early last year, SARS has changed the procedure. Now, to add a company to your profile, you need to add  a registered representative. In order to do this, you must send a request to SARS along with the following documents each time you want to represent a new company:

  • An image of yourself taken on the day the...


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Bank Branch Codes

  Written by Nicci  

(endpreview)

Bank Name Universal Branch Code
ABN AMRO BANK 740000
ABSA 632005
ALBARAKA BANK 800000
BANK OF ATHENS 410105
CAPITEC BANK 470010
CITIBANK 350005
FNB 25065...


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Navigating your way around your IRP5

  Written by Nicci  

Received your IRP5 or IT3(a) but unsure what it all means? Here’s a quick introduction to help you understand this tax document.

Personal details:

Your IRP5 starts with your personal details. While these details won’t override what SARS has on record, it’s important to check them and update any outdated information with your employer.

Income:

Your ...



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