Income tax for individuals can range from a basic income tax return that you could do without any assistance, to very complicated, depending on the amount and type of taxable income you earn.
There are some caveats, but generally you are not required to file a tax return if your taxable income is below the R500 000 threshold.
If you earn more than R500 000 South African Revenue Service (SARS) requires you to submit a tax return.
If, however you work from home, are a sole proprietor, have rental income, earn more than R500 000 per annum or earn income from multiple sources; it is advisable you use a qualified and experienced tax consultant (like BBO Consulting) to ensure compliance with your personal income tax return.
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Provisional income tax for individuals relates to tax returns and payments based on the estimated income tax of your company during the year of assessment. There are 2 – 3 provisional tax returns (and payments) processed via SARS eFiling and payments during a year of assessment.
There are penalties and interest for late submission and late payment, as well as under-estimating one’s taxable income by more than a certain amount. The return is a very simple one or two page submission, but the work required is behind the scenes, especially if you have a variety of incomes and deductions.
For more information to determine whether you are a provisional income tax payer, view our blog on this topic.
Not all individuals are required to submit tax returns. SARS usually opens its tax season around July of each year. This means that tax returns can be submitted for the February tax year from this date onwards.
The income tax return for individuals is called the ITR12 return. It is a much more comprehensive return than the provisional tax returns (IRP6) and contains all the details of your various incomes and deductions.
SARS have worked hard behind the scenes for a lot of the information to be pre-populated (like your IRP5 – or salary summary from your employer), but if you have a few streams of income and deductions you will need to spend a bit of time preparing all the information necessary to ensure you are compliant, and do not pay over too much tax.