Help taxman help you

Such a welcome refund is possible – if motorists with a travel allowance can provide SARS with a complete and detailed logbook, which starts with recording their vehicles’ opening odometer reading for the new tax year on March 1 annually and keeping detailed logs of every trip during the year.

“However, if SARS deems your logbook deficient in any way, your travel allowance tax claim can be rejected, leaving you with a potential tax liability,” cautions Alex Soldatos, managing director of Digital Matter Embedded, manufacturers of the GPS Log Book.

“This is because PAYE is often only deducted on 80% of the travel allowance during the year – and if your claim is rejected by SARS, PAYE on the remaining 20% of your travel allowance for each month will become payable.”

The cost-effective, simple and efficient solution is to use an electronic logbook device which simply plugs into the lighter socket of your car and records every trip, using high sensitivity GPS and intelligent logging software. The extensive mileage, usage and vehicle position data is then uploaded to a secure site via Mac or PC, where each trip can be categorised and annotated with comments.

The result is quick, detailed SARS-compliant tax logbooks and comprehensive records of billable hours, which help track, monitor and verify travelling costs.