This guide explains how you, as an employeewith common allowances and dedcutions, can submit your ITR12 tax return online (eFile it).
What you need to eFile your return
In order to efile you need access to a computer with an internet connection and a working email address.
Your internet browser should be reasonably up to date and will need Adobe Acrobat version 8.1.
As of last year, you don't need to submit any supporting documents with your return.
This year's good news is that if you are employed or receive a pension, some of the information from your supporting documents will already have been filled in on your tax return.
But you will still need your documents to check that what has been filled in is correct.
And you will need to fill in the details yourself if your earnings are from business activities or if you have deductions to claim.
So, before you sit down to eFile, gather together the following documents:
- One that shows the details of your bank account;
- Your IRP5 and IT3(a) certificates;
- The certificates you received for local interest income if you are unmarried or married out of community of property, or the certificates received by you and your spouse if you are married in community of property;
- Financial statements reflecting any business income you earned;
- The certificates you received for retirement annuity contributions, from the relevant financial institutions;
- Documents relating to medical expenditure, such as a statement from your medical scheme at the end of February and proof of other medical claims not submitted to your scheme;
- If you receive a travel allowance, the details to calculate your travel claim - that is, your odometer reading at the beginning of the tax year and at the end of it, and details of your business travel and/or costs; and
- Any other documentation relating to local income that must be declared or deductions that you want to claim.
Also remember that even though you don't need to submit any documents with your return, you must keep them for five years after submitting the return. SARS could, within this period, ask you to submit the documents to verify the information you have declared.
Step 1
Register for eFiling
If you haven't already registered for eFiling, you need to do so. Get your tax registration number/s, your identity (ID) number and your bank account details ready.
If you do not have a tax reference number, you can contact the SARS call centre on 0800 00 SARS (7277) to get one. You will need to have your ID number and other personal particulars on hand when you call.
When you've got the necessary details go to www.sarsefiling.co.za
Click on the "Register" link. Then choose the "For individuals" link.
Before you can continue, you need to read and agree to the terms and conditions of becoming an eFiler on the SARS site by checking the "I accept" box below the terms and conditions window.
You need to fill in:
- Your ID number;
- Your tax registration number;
- Whether you are married and, if so, under what contract;
- How you would like SARS to contact you in future;
- Your telephone and fax numbers;
- Your physical, postal and work addresses; and
- Your bank account details.
Then you need to choose a login name and password, and answer a security question (such as what is your mother's maiden name or your favourite pet's name). You also need to fill in a security PIN that appears on your screen.
Click on the "Register" button and you will automatically receive your login name to which SARS will add a four-digit number.
Step 2
Log on
Now you are ready to get going. Go to www.sarsefiling.co.za
Click on the "Login" button and enter your login name with the four-digit number that SARS added and your password.
If you have forgotten your user name or password, on the login page follow the "I forgot my login details" link. You will be asked for some of your details and sent your login name or password by SMS or email.
After logging in successfully the first page you will be taken to is one called "The income tax work page". This page will show you if SARS has issued a return for you.
You can open your income tax return by clicking on the ITR12 link.
As you log in, you will receive a message telling you that your employer may not yet have filed all your details or that SARS hasn't been able to find all your tax certificates and advising you to check later for updates. Everybody gets this message, because SARS doesn't know how many IRP5 or IT3(a) certificates you should have received.
It's up to you to check that the relevant employer-related information has been filled in.
If not, you need to wait for more details to be filled in before you submit the return. Next time you log in from "The income tax work page" click on the button at the bottom that reads "Refresh IRP5 data". This will update information from your IRP5 and IT3(a) certificates.
If the pages of your return appear very small, you can zoom in by using the + and - buttons on the toolbar to adjust the magnification of the page.
If there is no income tax return showing on this page, it means the registration process hasn't been finalised. You then need to phone the SARS call centre on 0800 00 SARS (7277) to resolve the problem.
Step 3
Build your return
The first page of your electronic return is a questionnaire and by answering the questions, you build your return with the fields that are relevant to you.
These are the questions you need to answer:
- Were you unemployed for the full year of assessment and received no income?
- Did you receive income that is reflected on an IRP5 or IT3(a) certificate?
- How many certificates did you receive?
- Did you incur any medical expenditure (including medical fund contributions)?
- Did you make any retirement annuity fund contributions?
- Do you want to claim expenditure against a travel allowance?
- Did you receive investment income?
- Did you receive any other income and/or incur any other deductions not addressed above?
Answering "yes" to some of these questions could open up more questions that you need to answer. These are all designed to ensure that your return has the required fields for the information you need to declare.
Step 4
Check your personal details
Now you can move on to the page with all your personal details. The blocks outlined in red are the ones you must fill in, but others should already be filled in (prepopulated) with your details and these you will just need to check.
Check that your name, ID number, telephone numbers and email address are correct.
Fill in your residential and postal addresses - if these are the same, you just need to check a box on the postal address section. If you haven't moved in the past year, you may wonder why these fields aren't prepopulated. SARS has decided to use the information you fill in in the address fields to update its systems.
Indicate your preferred method of communicating with SARS and your tax practitioner's details if you are using one.
Finally, check that your bank details are correct. This is very important because, if you are owed a refund, SARS will pay only by electronic transfer into this bank account.
SARS pays refunds using the branch number of your bank and not the name of the bank. You don't therefore need to name your bank or branch - just supply the number of the branch you use.
Step 5
Check your salary details
Now you are ready to move on to the next page of your return on which all the information about your salary and the tax and deductions made from it is recorded.
This section should already be filled in for you, with the name of your employer or pension fund and the income and/or benefits you received from your employer or pension fund as reflected on your IRP5 or IT3(a) certificate.
Check the name of your employer and your work address.
Then check the entries in the "Income received" section against the relevant codes on your certificates.
The information declared should include your salary, allowances, overtime pay, pension or annuities, fringe benefits, options or rights to buy shares, restraint of trade payments and bonuses.
There should be a total of all the amounts of non-taxable income, such as that from a reimbursive subsistence allowance; retirement-funding income, such as your salary, that is used to calculate your pension fund contributions; and non-retirement-funding income, such as allowances that are not included when your pension fund contributions are calculated.
The contributions you and your employer paid to your pension or provident fund, as well as your medical scheme contributions and any medical scheme contribution subsidy you received from your employer, should be recorded in the "Contributions/deductions" section. Check these amounts against your IRP5.
The Standard Income Tax on Employees (SITE) and as Pay As You Earn (PAYE) tax that your employer or pension fund deducted should also be recorded on the same page in the "Tax withheld and pay periods" section.
The number of pay periods in the tax year (for example, if you are paid monthly, 12 periods) and the number of these periods that you worked (for example, six if you worked only half the year) should also be recorded.
If any of the information reflected on your return is incorrect, you need to correct it and inform the SARS call centre on 0800 00 SARS (7277). Don't just change it without informing SARS because this will cause problems when you submit it.
If any income or benefits you have received from an employer or pension fund and the tax deducted are not recorded, you can either fill it in yourself or try again later to see if, by then, it has been entered.
If you try again later, when you get to "The income tax work page", click on the button at the bottom that reads "Refresh IRP5 data" before you open the return.
If you fill in your return yourself, its processing may be delayed because SARS will have to verify the data you entered with that which it receives from your employer or pension fund.
You should get a page with similar fields for each IRP5 or IT3(a) certificate you received, because you should have stated the number of IRP5s and IT3(a)s when you filled in the questionnaire on the first page of the electronic return.
If you answered the questionnaire incorrectly, you can return to it and amend your answer.
Step 6
Declare your investment income
Skip this step if you didn't earn any local or foreign investment income during the tax year.
If, however, you did, you should have indicated as much on the questionnaire on the first page of the return and you should have the relevant fields on your return.
If you have received local or foreign interest income or foreign dividends from more than one investment or financial institution, add the amounts of each together.
Remember to check for certificates stating the interest you have earned from your investments with banks, life assurers and unit trust companies.
Don't deduct the amount of investment income you are entitled to receive tax-free in terms of the exemption on investment income (R18 000 for the 2007/8 tax year if you are under the age of 65 or R26 000 if you are over 65).
SARS's computers are programmed to deduct these amounts for you.
If you are married in community of property, you need to enter the total amount of local or foreign interest income or foreign dividends you and your spouse have earned. SARS's computers are programmed to split the amount you enter equally between you and your spouse.
Step 7
Fill in any taxable capital gains you made
Skip this step if you didn't make any local or foreign taxable capital gains or losses.
If you did, you should have indicated as much on the questionnaire on the first page of the return and you should now have the relevant fields on your return.
Each transaction that results in a capital gain or loss must be declared separately.
In each case you need to declare the base cost of the asset of which you are disposing - this is the value at which you acquired the asset, plus the cost of any improvements or, if you acquired the asset before October 2001, the base cost at October 1, 2001.
There are three methods of determining the base cost as at October 1, 2001. If you need to do this, consult the income tax guide on SARS's website (see "If you need help"). You also need to declare the proceeds you received when you disposed of the asset.
If the gain was one you made on a primary residence, you can enter the primary residence exclusion, currently up to R1.5 million, and deduct this when you calculate the capital gain you made.
Don't deduct the annual exclusion, currently R15 000 in the 2007/8 tax year, as this will be done by SARS.
You need to record your gain even if it is less than the exemption.
Also, if you made a capital gain and are married in community of property, don't split the gain. SARS will do this for you.
Step 8
Declare any income earned
Skip this step if you earned only salary, pension or investment income.
If, however, you earned business or professional income or even rental income, you need to fill in the "Local business, trade and professional income" section.
By indicating that you earned this income in the questionnaire on the first page of the electronic return, you should have created a form with the relevant fields.
Now you need to enter the details about your turnover, expenses, and profit and loss; or professional fees; or rental income and expenses.
If you earned this kind of income, you also need to fill in the statement of assets and liabilities, and should have indicated in the questionnaire whether you have both local and foreign assets and liabilities.
The fields are fairly self-explanatory, but you may need to have available a few more documents and details to complete it, such as the outstanding amount on your mortgage bond and the value of your investments.
Step 9
Record details about your yearly medical expenses
If you paid medical scheme contributions and/or had any significant medical expenses that you did not recover from a medical scheme, then you should have answered yes to the relevant question in the questionnaire at the beginning of the tax return and you should have the relevant fields in which to declare these expenses.
Important:
If your employer paid medical scheme contributions on your behalf and/or deducted medical scheme contributions from your salary, this information should already have been recorded with your other salary details. You must not repeat the information in this section.
All you need to do is record how many dependants you had listed on the scheme, and answer the questions about expenses not recovered from your scheme - if you had these.
The field into which you need to "State your medical fund contribution not reflected on your tax certificate" next to the code 4005 should be filled in only if you paid your own contributions, for example, by debit order. If your employer paid or deducted contributions from your salary, put a "0" in this field, as in the example on this page.
SARS will calculate how much of your contributions you are entitled to claim as a deduction, but to do so it needs to know how many people you had registered as dependants on your scheme each month of the tax year. As long as your scheme registered a member of your family as a dependant, you can claim for contributions paid for that relative as a deduction.
So, for example, if you are the principal member and your spouse and one child were registered on the scheme as dependants for the first three months of the tax year, you need to enter the "number of members" on your return as three for the first three months. If, in the fourth month, you had a second child and registered him or her on your scheme for the rest of the year, record the number of members as four.
For other medical expenses
You are also entitled to claim a deduction for medical expenses you paid for your dependants to registered medical practitioners, for medicines or to facilities such as nursing homes and hospitals, and that you were unable to recoup from your medical scheme.
Add up all these expenses and enter them in the field labelled "State your qualifying medical expenses not recovered from your medical fund (other than handicap/physical disability expenses)".
If you are over the age of 65, you can claim all your qualifying medical expenses. If you are under 65, you can record all qualifying expenses and SARS will calculate what you are entitled to as a deduction.
The deduction you are allowed is only for expenses that exceed 7.5 percent of your taxable income.
This means you will probably only be able to claim your unrecouped expenses if these expenses were high relative to your income.
If you claimed all your medical expenses from your scheme - that is, you submitted all medical expenses as claims - you will be able to determine your unrecouped medical expenses from the statement you receive from your medical scheme.
If you, your spouse or your child is handicapped - for example, if you or one of your dependants is deaf or blind or requires a wheelchair as a result of a permanent disability - you can claim medical expenses incurred as a result of the handicap that you did not recover from your medical scheme in the section "Handicap expenses not recovered from your medical fund".
Similarly, if you, your spouse or dependent children have a physical disability - for example, if you wear glasses or suffer from diabetes - you can claim expenses incurred and not recovered from your medical scheme in respect of this disability in the section headed "Physical disability expenses not recovered from your medical fund".
Step 10
Declare your RA and income protection contributions
If you contributed to a retirement annuity (RA), you need to state this in the questionnaire on the first page and then declare these contributions on your form in the section headed "Retirement and income protection contributions".
It's important that even if you contributed to an RA through an employer and the information is recorded with your other salary details, you must fill in this section to qualify for a tax deduction.
Use the amount on the certificate you received from the institution to which you made the contributions or, if you are contributing to more than one RA fund, add up the amounts on each certificate.
Any contributions to an RA that exceed the amount you are entitled to deduct will be carried forward to the next tax year as contributions.
Remember, you can claim only contributions made in your own name as a member of an RA fund. You cannot claim contributions made on behalf of your spouse or child.
If you paid premiums on a policy to protect yourself against loss of income as a result of illness, injury, disability or unemployment, you should receive a certificate from the institution to which the contributions were made.
Fill in the amount you paid in this section of the return.
Step 11
Claim your travel expenses against an allowance
If your employer pays you a travel allowance because you use your vehicle for work purposes, you need to indicate this in the questionnaire. Your return will then include a travel allowance claim section.
The allowance paid to you should be recorded in the income section of your return and this should already be filled in for you. In this section you need to tell SARS how much of that allowance you actually spent on travel for work purposes.
If you used more than one vehicle during the year for work purposes, you must state this in the questionnaire. Your return will then accommodate details for all vehicles.
The first question you need to answer is "Did you use a log book to determine your business kilometres travelled?" This is because there are different ways you can claim against your travel allowance - you can either use the deemed mileage that SARS allows you to claim, or the actual mileage you have driven for business purposes and recorded.
If you want to state actual mileage, you should have kept a log book of your mileage. You can then answer "yes" to the question on the use of a log book.
If you use the deemed mileage method, and there is no information to the contrary, the first 18 000km you travelled will be considered by SARS to be for private purposes. Your deemed business mileage will be limited to 14 000km.
This means that if you travel less than 18 000km for private purposes, you could be better off keeping a log book of your business travel and claiming your actual business mileage.
Alternatively, if your business mileage is high and exceeds 14 000km, you will also probably be better off claiming your actual mileage.
Remember, travelling between your residence and place of employment is considered private and not business travel.
You also need to fill in your vehicle's registration number and its cash value or cost price. The cost price or cash value of your vehicle is the price including VAT that you paid for it when you bought it, but excluding any interest you have paid on a vehicle financing arrangement.
Next, you need to tell SARS how long you have been using your vehicle for business purposes. If, for example, you have been using the vehicle for the whole tax year, fill in the "Starting date" as March 1, 2007 and the "Closing date" as February 29, 2008.
If you used your vehicle for business purposes for only part of the year, the deemed mileages must be used pro rata.
In the fields on your return marked "Opening km" and "Closing km" you need to fill in the odometer reading on your vehicle at the start of the tax year or when you started using your vehicle for work purposes, and the reading at the end of the tax year or when you stopped using your vehicle for work purposes. The "Opening km" should be the same as the "Closing km" you declared on last year's return if you received an allowance last year and didn't change vehicles at the end of the tax year.
If you eFiled last year and need to look up the mileage you declared last year, return to "The income tax work page" and look on the left-hand navigation bar for the "Return history" link. You should then have access to all the returns you eFiled.
The online return will calculate the total mileage for the tax year ("Total km") for you.
In the "Private km" field fill in your private travel mileage or use the deemed mileage of 18 000km. In the "Business km" field, fill in the actual mileage you travelled for work purposes as recorded in your log book, or calculate your deemed business mileage by subtracting 18 000km from your total mileage.
If you have accurate records of everything you spent on your vehicle during the tax year, you can enter your actual expenses for fuel and oil, maintenance and repairs, licensing and insurance, and wear and tear or lease payments.
Alternatively, you can leave these fields blank and SARS will use the fixed scale of costs to calculate your claim against your allowance.
You do not have to calculate the amount you will be allowed to deduct from your taxable income as a claim against your travel allowance. SARS will work out the amount for you.
Step 12
Claim any other deductions
There are only a few other deductions you are entitled to make from your taxable income if you are a salary earner. These deductions include those for:
- Claims against a subsistence allowance you are paid if you are obliged to travel for business purposes and spend nights away from home;
- Donations to an organisation that is an approved public benefit organisation;
- Depreciation of an asset, such as a computer, you are obliged to use for work purposes; or
- Home office expenses if you use part of your home regularly and exclusively as an office.
If you want to claim any of these expenses, consult the income tax guide (see "If you need help").
Step 13
Check what you owe
Once you have filled in all you need to on your return, click "Save online" and return to the "The income tax work page". Look at the bottom of the page for the "Tax calculator" button.
Clicking on this will generate a tax calculation that will give you an idea of what your assessment will look like.
You will get an idea of what you owe in tax or what you are owed as a refund by SARS.
If the answer is very different from what you expected, it could be because you have made an error on your return and need to check it.
If the answer is in line with what you expected, you are probably ready to submit your return.
Step 14
Submit your return before the deadline
If you are sure you have filled in everything correctly, open your return again and click on the "File" button.
If you have forgotten to fill in something that you should have, you may now be prompted to do so. If you have not answered the questionnaire correctly and have not added the relevant sections of your return, SARS's computers won't be able to prompt you to correct that error.
Once you have hit "File" you should receive a message confirming that your return has been filed.
You must hit the "File" button on your completed tax return by January 23 next year. Don't leave eFiling to the last minute, however. As the deadline approaches, more people will be accessing the SARS website, and it will be more likely that you take longer to finish the job.
If you need help
For technical problems, phone the SARS call centre on 0800 00 SARS (7277).
For questions about how to fill in your return, look at the guides SARS has prepared. Go to www.sarsefiling.co.za and follow the "Forms and guides" link. Look in the "Individuals" section.
Alternatively, you can visit your local SARS office.
Warning
Disclose all information on your return fully and accurately. You could be liable for penalties and/or additional assessments (together with interest) and/or prosecution if you misrepresent yourself or if you neglect to furnish or omit relevant information.