Tax season is upon us. For some, that involves a mad scramble to dig up each and every receipt accumulated over the last financial year. For others, it might be less stressful. Regardless of which side of the organisational spectrum one falls, there are a few important things of which to be aware.
Taxpayers need to be sure if they are legally required to file, advised Stiaan Klue, chief executive of the SA Institute of Tax Professionals. He continued, “Subject to some exceptions, this year certain taxpayers are not required to file a tax return if their total salary for the year (before tax) is not more than R350 000.” However, regardless of the salary earned, taxpayers with more than one employer are obliged to file a return.
Before filing, taxpayers need to ensure they have the correct documentation, the most common being:
- An IRP5. This is issued by the employer
- Proof of medical expenses (if applicable)
- IT3(b) certificate(s) showing interest received (if applicable)
- A travel logbook (if the employee had to travel for business on behalf of the employer)
On the topic of retaining records, registered tax practitioner Bruce Austin advised, “It is always in the taxpayer’s interests to keep these in a file in case there is a Sars assessment query.” He suggests that items such as medical expenses should be filed away and retained for a year or two. He continued that if the taxpayer has a second property that they rent out, receipts of all expense items such as repairs and maintenance need to be kept and produced when required by Sars. He added, “Any tax receipts received from Insurance Retirement Annuity policy pay outs and any receipts from interest received from financial institutions need to be retained.”
Details: Sars website
Sars Call Centre: 0800 00 7277
Important deadline dates for the 2015 tax season:
- 30 September 2015 – Manual/postal submissions
- 27 November 2015 – Submissions at a Sars branch (for non-provisional taxpayers)
- 27 November 2015 – Submissions on eFiling (for non-provisional taxpayers)
- 29 January 2016 – Provisional taxpayers via eFiling
