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Latest Posts in TaxTim's Blog

I received an SMS saying I owe SARS, but I can't see it anywhere?

  Written by Alicia  

SARS have recently become a lot stricter with late filers and have changed their rules for administrative penalties. You can read more about these changes here.   There used to be some leeway for taxpayers who missed the deadline, but sadly these days are certainly over. 

If you received a notification of debt from...



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How to update your contact details on eFiling

  Written by Alicia  

Please read the steps below to update your contact details on your SARS eFilng profile:

1. Go to www.sarsefiling.co.za

2. Log into your eFiling profile:

3. Click on



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Tax on Pension Annuities

  Written by Neo  


Taking a closer look at why taxpayers may be required to pay in tax on pensions or annuities on assessment and how they can avoid a repetition of this each year.

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How you can avoid load-shedding while reducing your tax bill

  Written by Patrick  

In his Budget Speech on 22 February 2023, Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana announced the introduction of tax incentives intended to encourage the rapid uptake of renewable energy.

Government has developed the scheme in a bid to encourage households to invest in clean electricity generation capacity. The programme is intended to minimise demand on the national grid by reducing the number of households that are entirely reliant on Eskom for their power.

The incentives will r...



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Navigating Tax Consequences for Social Media Influencers

  Written by Alicia  

In today's digital age, social media influencers wield significant influence and often enjoy lucrative partnerships with brands. However, amidst the glitz and glam, it's crucial for influencers to be aware of their tax obligations. In this blog post, we'll explore the tax consequences that social media influencers need to consider in South Africa. 

Understanding Tax Obligations

As a social media influencer in South Africa, it's essential to recognize that...



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How to Change/Verify Your Bank Details at SARS

  Written by Marc  


SARS has recently issued a new guide with regards to updating your banking details with them. This was done in order to reduce the risk of refunds being paid into the wrong accounts and also to streamline the process, which has tended to be an onerous one in the past.

Change of bank details can be done:

  • in person at a SARS branch (During the pandemic, it would be best to make a telephonic appointment with SARS and then send them your supporting documents, SARS will cont...


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Unpacking the Foreign Employment Income Exemption

  Written by Neo  


This is the exemption is for employees that receives foreign employment income for services rendered outside of South Africa, provided that all the requirements are met.

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Top Questions on Income that is not taxed

  Written by Neo  


Exempt or non-taxable income refers to certain types of income, which is not subject to income tax.

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Navigating around your Allan Gray tax certificate (IT3c)

  Written by Neo  


1. This is the proceeds i.e  the value that your shares were sold for. This amount needs to be entered as proceeds in the  capital gains section of your tax 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....



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How home office deduction impacts Capital Gains Tax

  Written by Neo  


With “flexible” employment being the new buzzword, more and more people are working part or all of the week from an office in their home.

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Tax Free Savings Accounts: Everything You Need to Know

  Written by Vee  

As a nation, South Africa does rather poorly on the savings front. With the majority living near or below the breadline, there’s not much to save when you’re more concerned with just getting through the month. Our high levels of consumer-debt, combined with little in the way of personal savings, means we become financial burdens on the government in the long-run...



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Do You Need to Ring-Fence Your Business or Rental Losses for Tax?

  Written by Vee  

When pursuing a business activity, trade or renting out a property, you’re no doubt doing so to make some money, but the reality for self-starters

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Food for Thought on Subsistence Allowances

  Written by Vee  

You’ve been up since 4am in order to catch yet another red-eye flight for a 9am business meeting - 1,400km away - and you’re already onto your third coffee by the time you board the plane.

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I forgot to submit some documents to SARS - what must I do now?

  Written by Neo  


If you left out some documents in your original submission to SARS, don’t panic.

SARS has recently implemented a new process

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Capital Gains and Losses: which source codes to use?

  Written by Alicia  

In the Capital Gains section of the annual tax return (ITR12), SARS requires you to insert the relevant asset source code for the item you have sold.  However, when you sell financial investments (e.g shares)  the financial institution issues an IT3(c) which shows the profit/loss source code (i.e4250/4251) and not the asset source code.  This causes confusion for taxpayers, who think th...



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How to add your Company Tax Number to your eFiling profile

  Written by Patrick  

As part of SARS’ mission to simplify the eFiling system, the Tax Type Transfer process was updated in 2020 for all Tax products in a bid to offer users complete control of their eFiling profiles. 

What's new on eFiling?

 Overall, you can expect to see the following key changes introduced to eFiling from the end of April 2021: 

  • Changes to adding taxpayers to a profile (Organisations, Practitioners & individuals)
  • The removal of multiple capture fields to simplify the process
  • Validation requirements for captured information to ensure alignment to SARS records, e.g...


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Budget 2024: No Major Tax Hikes

  Written by Nicci  

South Africans were bracing themselves for bad news when Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana delivered his budget speech yesterday. However, in line with expectations during an election year, he delivered the reassuring news that there would be no significant tax hikes, no VAT increase, and no introduction of a new wealth tax. Contrary to earlier speculation, the medical tax rebate is also set to stay for a while longer.

However, this positive news is not without consequences. As South ...



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Navigating around your Medical Aid Tax Certificate

  Written by Nicci  

If you belong to a Medical Aid, there is important information on your medical aid tax certificate which needs to be included in your tax return.

This will ensure you receive the medical aid tax credit that is due to you.

Do you belong to any of the below medical aids?


- Bankmed
- Bonitas...



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Top Tips for Sole Props

  Written by Neo  


1. Keep an accurate record of revenue and expenses

You can draw up these records by way of a simple spreadsheet based on your invoices and then confirm these amounts by cross-checking them against your bank statement.

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What to do if your tax return was rejected by SARS

  Written by Alicia  

If you've received a letter from SARS saying that your tax return has been rejected and you're not sure why, there could be a few reasons why this has happened. Here are some of the most common reasons, along with the corrective steps you need to take:

Reason 1: You were auto-assessed by SARS for the 2020, 2021 or 2022 tax year, but you submitted your tax return after the 40-day period SARS gave you, and you failed to request an extension in time. Please click here to read more about auto-assessments. ...


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What is Beneficial Ownership?

  Written by Alicia  

The CIPC recently (1 April 2023) implemented a new register called the Beneficial Ownership (BO) register in an attempt to establish who owns or exercise control over which companies.

In layman’s terms, BO in respect of a company means, an individual who, directly or indirectly, ultimately owns that company or exercises effective control over that company for tax or financial purposes.

This new register is to assist law enforcement with relevant information when it comes...



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Why does SARS require manual intervention to finalise my return?

  Written by Marc  


When a Tax Return is filed usually SARS issues an immediate assessment (ITA34), however sometimes they do need to do a further manual check on their side.

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TaxTim Refund Policy Explained

  Written by Alicia  

Each time SARS makes changes on eFiling or with their standard operating procedures, TaxTim has to adjust its systems and processes. We usually receive no warning of these technical changes. During this time, some of our users might feel a need to abandon our service and either seek help elsewhere or go and queue at SARS. 

We understand this may cause frustration, however we will not refund you in cases where you have worked your way through every section of the TaxTim dialogue a...



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How do I know if I was auto-assessed?

  Written by Alicia  

During the tax year, SARS issued SMS's to taxpayer whom they chose to auto-assess.

Those selected individuals would typically be taxpayers earning fixed salaries without additional allowances. If they did have medical aid and retirement annuity fund contributions, these details would have already been sent to SARS by their service providers, and SARS should have automatically included them in the assessment.

We've received many questions on our help desk where users say that t...



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Income Tax Return Verifications and Audits

  Written by Elani  

It is important to note that verifications and audits are two different processes. In a simple explanation, verification is the "straightforward" process to confirm if the information you declared on your tax return is true and correct, whilst an audit is where the tax return is under deeper investigation which means they look at the finer details. 

Supporting documents request

If SARS decides to review your tax return, they will notify you via a SARS let...



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