Written by Alicia
Posted 6 May 2025
Local assets are all the assets you own in South Africa, such as local owned properties, vehicles, shares, loans you gave someone else, investments in the bank, crypto assets, total balance in your bank account at the end of the tax year and lastly the value of any business related equipment (this would only be relevant for people running a sole proprietorship).
Written by Alicia
Posted 6 May 2025
A tax directive is another word for an instruction issued by SARS to an employer or a fund telling them how much tax they should deduct from your income. Each tax directive has a special number (tax directive number) which links the lump sum you received to the tax that the company deducted.
Written by Nicci
Posted 6 May 2025
The CIPC stands for the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission in South Africa.
It is a government agency under the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC), responsible for:
Company Registration:
Registering new companies (e.g. private, public, non-profit)
Maintenance of Company Records:
Written by Nicci
Posted 5 May 2025
Written by Nicci
Posted 30 April 2025
Net capital is the value of your business after subtracting what you owe (liabilities) from what you own (assets). It shows your business’s financial strength.
Example:
Let’s say you run a small clothing boutique in Cape Town. You have:
Written by Nicci
Posted 30 April 2025
Shares represent ownership in a company. When you buy shares, you become a shareholder — meaning you own a small part of that company. Companies issue shares to raise money, and in return, investors get a chance to benefit from the company’s growth and profits.
There are two main ways to make money from shares:
Written by Nicci
Posted 30 April 2025
A bond is essentially a loan you give to a company, a municipality, or the government. It is a type of investment. When you buy a bond, you are lending money—and in return, they pay you interest as income and promise to pay back the original amount (called the capital) at a fixed date in the future.
Important: an "investment bond" is not to be confused with a "mortgage bond", which you...
Written by Nicci
Posted 29 April 2025
A foreign dividend is a payment made by a foreign company to you because you own shares in the foreign company. It’s a way for the company to share its profits with you.
In most cases, if a taxpayer holds less than 10% of the shares and voting rights in a foreign company, the foreign dividend received is taxable. The full amount must be declared in the tax return, but SARS allows a partial exemption, meani...
Written by Nicci
Updated 24 April 2025
COMPANY LETTERHEAD
Date
Employee's Full Name
Address
To Whom It May Concern,
Subject: Confirmation of foreign employment
This letter serves to confirm that____________________________(Name of employee) _______________________(ID number) is employed by __________________________(company name) in the capacity of__________________________(position).
He/she is contracted to work overseas in _______________ (country) from ______________dd/mm/yy to ________________dd/mm/yy. ...
Written by Nicci
Posted 24 April 2025
There is a section on the ITR12 tax return that asks you to indicate any periods during the tax year when you were not working (i.e., were unemployed).
This section applies only to South African tax residents who are salaried employees and receive an IRP5.
...
Written by Alicia
Posted 24 April 2025
Written by Alicia
Posted 24 April 2025
Written by Nicci
Updated 23 April 2025
1. How many returns should I file each year if I am a provisional taxpayer?
You are required to file 3 returns i.e. 2 provisional tax returns (IRP6s) and one annual return (ITR12). The reason you need to file the annual return, too, is that your provisional returns are based on an estimate of your taxable income, while the annual return reflects your actual taxable income. Any provisional payments you have made for the year will be deducted from your final tax liability, which is calculated when you submit your annual tax return for assessment.
2...
Written by Alicia
Updated 22 April 2025
Provisional tax can be confusing, especially when it comes to the timing of payments. If you miss the first payment, do you need to catch it up, or can you just pay the second one? And what happens if you become a provisional taxpayer halfway through the year - are you still expected to file a first provisional tax return? In this post, we’ll attempt to clear up the confusion around first and second provisional tax payments.
Brief summary
Written by Alicia
Updated 22 April 2025
TaxTim uses the financial information which you entered to work out the payment due on your provisional tax return (also called an IRP6). However, there may be some information we don’t have access to, which won’t be included in the estimate of your provisional tax payment. To see what SARS has on record, you will need to request a Provisio...
Written by Alicia
Updated 22 April 2025
During the final days of the provisional tax season, high traffic volumes may cause delays in submitting provisional tax returns to SARS—even after you've clicked 'submit' on our website.
To avoid late payment penalties, we recommend paying the estimated provisional tax amount shown on our website. Once your provisional tax return (IRP6) appears in eFiling and your SARS provisional Statement o...
Written by Elani
Updated 22 April 2025
You can Register yourself for provisional tax in a few quick steps on your eFiling profile:
Go to www.sarsefiling.co.za
Type in your unique username and password – you will have decided on these when you registered for eFiling.
Didn’t register yet to eFile? Please refer to our
Written by Patrick
Updated 22 April 2025
Written by Patrick
Updated 22 April 2025
If you earn income from renting out a property, or even subletting a room in your home, you need to pay tax on it...
Written by Nicci
Updated 16 April 2025
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.
Read more →
Written by Nicci
Updated 16 April 2025
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.
Read more →
Written by Nicci
Updated 15 April 2025
Consult the image below to find all the tax-related information on your IRP5 that you will need when completing your annual tax return.
Written by Nicci
Posted 14 April 2025
Written by Vee
Updated 10 April 2025
Medical expenses are nothing to sneeze at. Private medical treatment is increasingly pushing the limits of medical aid scheme
Read more →
Written by Elani
Posted 2 April 2025
Unfortunately, some of the SARS documents cannot be viewed online (i.e. from within your internet browser). You can work around this issue by downloading the SARS document to your computer. You will then be able to view the document when opening it directly on your device.
Steps to follow if the SARS document is blank on your browser:
Do Your Tax Return Easily