Written by Marc
Updated 30 July 2024
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.
Written by Neo
Updated 30 July 2024
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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Written by Neo
Updated 30 July 2024
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....
Written by Evan
Updated 20 July 2024
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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Written by Marc
Updated 16 July 2024
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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Written by Neo
Updated 11 July 2024
These tips are part of TaxTim's personalised recommendation tool called the Tax Health Score.
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Written by Vee
Updated 2 July 2024
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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Written by Evan
Updated 27 June 2024
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...
Written by Neo
Updated 27 June 2024
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...
Written by Nicci
Updated 27 June 2024
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...
Written by Neo
Updated 27 June 2024
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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Written by Neo
Updated 27 June 2024
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. ...
Written by Nicci
Updated 27 June 2024
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...
Written by Neo
Updated 18 June 2024
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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Written by Nicci
Updated 18 June 2024
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...
Written by Nicci
Posted 4 June 2024
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...
Written by Alicia
Updated 28 May 2024
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:
Written by Nicci
Updated 27 May 2024
Received your IRP5 or IT3(a) but unsure what it all means? Here’s a quick introduction to help you understand this tax document.
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.
Your ...
Written by Alicia
Posted 24 May 2024
In order to use TaxTim and import your tax certificates directly from your SARS eFiling profile, you will need to be able to login to your SARS profile.
If you do not remember your eFiling username and password, here is a short guide to request it:
1. Go to SARS eFiling and click "Forgot Username".
Written by Neo
Updated 16 May 2024
What is the definition of tax threshold? Tax thresholds? SARS Threshold.
A Tax threshold is the lower limit of earnings at which tax needs to start being paid. So any income less than the current threshold, would not be taxed.
What is Turnover Tax?
Turnover Tax is a streamlined taxation system designed to simplify tax compliance for small businesses. It replaces several types of taxes—Income Tax, VAT, Provisional Tax, Capital Gains Tax, and Dividends Tax—with a single tax based on turnover...
Written by Vee
Updated 16 May 2024
Turnover Tax is a simplified tax system only available to sole proprietors, partnerships, companies, or close corporations with a “qualifying turnover” of less than R1m per year. These types of entities are called micro businesses.
As the name implies, Turnover Tax is a type of tax, which is calculated against the turnover of a business, as opposed to a percentage of profit (i.e. income less business expenses) as per usual business tax. This difference reduces the administ...
Written by Alicia
Updated 15 May 2024
The enhanced tax incentive recently introduced by the government, known as Section 12BA, aims to promote private investment in electricity generation from renewable energy sources to help alleviate the energy crisis in the country. This incentive is a temporary enhancement of the existing renewable energy tax incentive found in section 12B of the Income Tax Act.
Below are the key points:
Availability and Duration
The incentive is available from 1 ...
Written by Neo
Updated 29 April 2024
1. This is the gross base cost of all shares you bought through the institution. You must NOT use this value on your return.
2. This is the base cost i.e the costs attached to the sale of your shares. This amount needs to be entered as the base cost in the capital gains section of your tax return.
3. This is the...
Written by Alicia
Posted 25 April 2024
SARS has reported a rise in eFiling profile hijacking, involving various methods such as altering security details, creating, or modifying taxpayer profiles, and executing SIM swaps.
The hijackers’ objectives are to redirect tax refunds to fraudulent bank accounts, which they are setting up for this purpose. There are certain banks which appear to feature more frequently.
If you are the victim of such profile hacking, you must immediately report this fraud via the
Written by Neo
Updated 24 April 2024
So, you’ve recently submitted your tax returns and shortly thereafter you receive a message from SARS informing you about admin penalties that have been charged against you. This has most probably come as a shock to you. We’ve been inundated with questions from taxpayers asking about these penalties which have been charged against them. Below we’ve highlighted things you need to know as well as ways in which you can handle these penalties.
When are penalties charged?...
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