Travel allowance The car allowance will only be considered if you have a kept a log book detailing your business and private mileage for the year. Remember that travel from your home to your place of work does not qualify for business travel. It is deemed to be private travel by SARS. Only travel from your place of work to clients counts as a deduction.

Most tracking units fitted for insurance purposes have a log book device which details your travel every time you start and stop on your travels. This is well worth the cost taking the schlep out of the keeping records during the year.

Retirement funding…

Retirement annuities are still deductible from your taxable income and should be maxed out every year as it is one of the best investments you can make towards your retirement. The deduction you get is the same rate as your marginal rate of tax. If you pay 30% tax then your dedication is 30%. So for every rand you save towards a retirement annuity you effectively only pay 70 cents. A 30% return before you start investing. The deduction comes with limits. If you are on a pension fund then you are limited to R1 750 and a provident fund limits you to R3 500 per annum. If you don’t contribute to a retirement fund with your company then you can deduct up to 15% of your taxable income.

The deadlines for submission is 27th November 2015 and 29th January 2016 if you are a provisional tax payer. July has been declared as National Savings Month. A hard theme to follow in a time of deep global recession and rising costs in our local economy. In spite of these hard times we still need to tackle savings as a “must”.