Tag: tax return

A per diem (from the Latin for per day) is a daily stipend given to business travellers to cover food and incidental expenses while they’re on the road. It’s not, in fact, a perk to make up for the inconvenience of being away from home – or a little extra spending money to splurge on spoils and souvenirs.

Receiving a letter of demand from the South African Revenue Service (SARS) is never to be ignored, and often, where the correct response is not timeously delivered, spells the beginning of the end for the recipient taxpayer! In their war on non-compliance, the revenue collector issues scores of final demands on a daily basis, effectively serving as a “warning-shot” or last chance, for taxpayers to remedy the non-compliance detected.

With 2024 being the first year that trust taxpayers are tasked with submitting third party IT3(t) returns to South African Revenue Service (SARS) by 30 September 2024, this change of the filing season could potentially offer a silver lining for trust taxpayers, granting them additional time to prepare for their 2024 tax return filing along with the added compliance measures that come with the submission.

In today’s digital age, cybercrime is advancing at an alarming rate. As technology evolves, so do the tactics of cybercriminals. Unfortunately, your South African Revenue Service (SARS) e-filing account is not immune to these threats.

On 27 June 2024, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) announced its enhanced Beneficial Ownership disclosures for the 2024 Filing Season. Not even 24 hours later, the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) issued a media release enforcing beneficial ownership (OB) declaration, to be able to file annual returns. This may simply be a compliance coincidence, but more likely a strategic move to eradicate non-compliance for companies, trusts, and partnerships, on all levels.

The fiscal pressures on South African Revenue Service's (SARS) tax collection appear to have now compelled SARS to actively initiate the arrest and prosecution of taxpayers who do not accurately declare their taxable income. For long time, it has been warned that SARS possesses third-party information from banks, financial institutions, estate agents, car dealerships etc., enabling them to identify those who are not declaring their income correctly.

The draft tax law amendment published in August and targeting foreign employers has inadvertently led to an uproar amongst South African remote workers who fear the law change may disincentivise foreign employers from retaining the services of South African talent.

According to recent research from the Master of the High Court of South Africa, it’s estimated that 15% of South Africans who die have a will in place, which means that five out of six don’t. If you die without a will, your estate will be intestate. This can be a long and drawn-out process, and the assets from your estate will not be in line with what you wanted.

The draft Taxation Laws Amendment Bill, which was issued on 31 July 2023, proposes the introduction of a new rooftop solar energy tax incentive for individuals in an effort to encourage South African households to invest in electricity generation capacity, and by so doing, reduce pressure on the electricity grid.

Expatriate tax is complex, intricate and can be challenging to understand – especially if one does not have the basics, such as what is an expat, down pat. Simply, an expatriate, or expat, is an individual who has relocated from their home country to another, either temporarily or permanently.