Are you planning to purchase a new vehicle for use in your business? If so, if you are registered with SARS as a VAT vendor, are you under the impression that you may claim a refund of the VAT charged to you by the seller of the vehicle? BEWARE- there are only very limited circumstances, … Continue reading Business vehicles – Can you reduce the cost by getting a refund of the VAT? →

This week the news was full of the 16-year- old American, Kyle Giersdorf, who won US$3mn in the World Cup online game, Fortnite Battle Royale. His win raises an interesting tax question: if he was a South African playing a South African game would he have to contribute to the welfare of his fellow South … Continue reading Must the winners from on-line games and gambling make a tax contribution to society? →

By Barry Ger* Every person who buys a rental property as an investment hopes to make a profit but that doesn’t always happen. Often, the rental your tenant pays doesn’t cover the interest on the bond you took out to finance the property, the fees paid to the management agent, the levies or rates, as … Continue reading Don’t always count on rental losses to reduce your tax bill →

[for prior posts see link at end of "about the author"] The newspapers have spoken a lot about our new tax Commissioner's comments about people not having to submit tax returns if they earned less than R500 000 in the tax year ended 28 February 2019. This has unfortunately led to a lot of confusion … Continue reading Tax Season is open…..does that mean you have to file a tax return? →

[If you would like to access previous articles scroll the bottom of the "About the author" section and click on the link] A reader recently drew my attention, once again, to the complexities of the tax 'medical rebate'. Fortunately, I was able to answer my reader's question quite easily - "I am retired (over 65) … Continue reading If you’re ill, trying to figure out how the additional medical expense credit works for you is not likely to help! →

Much is written about the importance of saving....by putting away a little every month (be it R100, R1000 or more) you (here I am talking about natural persons and not companies or trusts) can accumulate some funds for things you might need later in life. And those savings tend to grow themselves. Generally, the money … Continue reading How much tax do you pay when you invest your savings? →