The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has published a tax guide for small businesses. This guide is a general guide dealing with the taxation of small businesses such as sole proprietors, partnerships and companies not part of large groups. Some of the discussions in this guide could, however, be applicable to any type of taxpayer.
The guide also deals, amongst others, with the following:
- general characteristics of different types of business;
- registration as a taxpayer;
- year of assessment and filing of income tax returns;
- the SARS eFiling and SARS MobiApp;
- connection between "net profit" and "taxable income";
- determination of taxable income or assessed loss;
- special allowances or deductions and recoupment;
- deduction of home office expenditure;
- deductions in respect of expenditure and losses incurred before commencement of trade;
- ring-fencing of assessed losses of certain trades;
- duty to keep records, retention period in case of audit, objection or appeal and records
- appointment of auditor or accounting officer;
- representative taxpayer;
- tax clearance certificates and tax compliance status;
- non-compliance with legislation;
- interest, penalties and additional tax;
- request for correction;
- objection against assessment or decision; and
- dispute resolution.
A detailed copy of the guide can be accessed here.