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.
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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.
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Consult the image below to find all the tax-related information on your IRP5 that you will need when completing your annual tax return.
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 return (IRP6) appears in eFiling and your SARS provisional Statement of Ac...
Medical expenses are nothing to sneeze at. Private medical treatment is increasingly pushing the limits of medical aid scheme
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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...
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 return? In this post, we’ll attempt to clear up the confusion around first and second provisional tax payments.
Brief summary
Unfortunately, some of 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:
As most of us know by now, cryptocurrency is not real but virtual money.
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If you're a provisional taxpayer, you can request a statement of your provisional account on eFiling. However, instead of finding it on your Income Tax workpage, you first need to go to the Provisional Tax workpage. This can be tricky if you don't use eFiling often, so we've listed the steps below to help you.
STEP 1: Log into SARS eFiling
Have you recently received a present or a donation from a wealthy family member or a friend? Or, maybe you've just donated money to support a child in need?
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Have you been the lucky recipient of a gift or donation from a generous family member or friend? Perhaps they struck it lucky on the Lotto and decided to share their winnings with you!
Or maybe you're the giving type and have donated cash, shares or even property to someone you felt deserved a little boost.
Irrespective of whether you're the giver or receiver of a donation or gift, it's good to understand donations from a tax perspective, and how to declare these to SARS.
Ready to find out?
Let's get started.
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2026 tax year (1 March 2025 - 28 Feb 2026) same as 2025 tax year, no changes.
2025 tax year (1 March 2024 - 28 Feb 2025) same as 2024 tax year, no changes.
Although the latest budget avoids the steep VAT hike proposed last month, it still puts significant pressure on taxpayers.
All taxpayers will feel the pinch, as tax brackets and rebates have not been adjusted for inflation - for the second year in a row.
VAT is proposed to rise by 0.5 percentage point this year, with another increase planned for 2026, bringing it to 16%...
TaxTim has TWO exciting competitions in 2025!
Win R10,000 in cash by filing your tax return with TaxTim
How to enter:
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Seasoned provisional taxpayers – those people who earn income from sources other than, or in addition to a regular ol' salary or traditional payment from an employer - are all too familiar with the process of estimating taxable income and submitting provisional tax returns. Not once - but twice a year!
Yes, it's a bit painful (although TaxTim makes it super easy) but entirely necessary if you don't want to be lumped with penalties from SARS...
Step 1:
Log into your SARS eFiling pofile.
Step 2:
Navigate to your Tax Return which was auto-assessed.
You can do this by clicking "Returns" (top menu), then "Returns History" (side menu), then "Personal Income Tax ITR12" , then select the the relevant ITR12.
You will see the
What is an auto-assessment?
This is an automatic assessment issued by SARS to certain taxpayers.
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Many taxpayers find the process of filing a correction confusing. This often happens when they submit their tax return after the auto-assessment deadline or attempt to make corrections after SARS has already reviewed or audited their return. To make things clearer, we’ve compiled a list of common questions and answers to guide you through this challenge.
1. How long do I have to submit a correction?
This week we received some questions from our users on retirement fund contributions and the laws that govern it. We hope that this helps you as you start gathering your documents for the new tax season.
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Insolvency is a state of financial distress when a person or business is unable to pay their debts.
Sequestration is a legal process that is used to deal with your financial difficulties and manage your debts. It gives you legal relief from creditors, while the debt recovery efforts of the various companies you owe are put on hold.
SARS Timelines
SARS operates within specific timelines to comply with the rules outlined in the Tax Administration Act and the commitments detailed in their service charter.
However, these timelines are not easily accessible on the SARS website, leaving many of our users needing to contact the helpdesk for updates on their submissions.
To assist you, we’ve compiled a comprehensive list of these timelines:
Auto-Assessment<...
Getting a new business venture off the ground is an equally exciting and stressful time. You’re enthusiastic about getting your new product or service out into the market, but you face quite an administrative process to get it off the ground legally.
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South African expatriates who ignore their tax obligations will soon find themselves facing the wrath of the taxman in the upcoming tax season.
SARS has urged taxpayers including expats (South Africans residing outside the country) to urgently review their tax compliance status or stand the risk of facing major penalties or even jail time.
Originally, individuals were taxed according to a source-based tax system but from 1 March 2001 it has changed so that individuals will be ...
South Africa rolled out the Two-Pot Retirement System on 1 September, 2024. It applies to any South African who has a pension fund, provident fund or retirement annuity fund.
The Two-Pot Retirement System allows you to access a limited portion of your retirement savings before retirement for emergencies, while the majority of your savings remains "preserved". This means the larger part of your savings must stay invested until you reach retirement.
The goal of South Africa's ne...