Drop-shipping and taxes

I am currently running a drop-shipping business on Shopify which makes around R83 000 in sales (that's about R45000 profit) per year. As it is a small amount of money at this moment, do I still need to register my business at this stage and start paying taxes? Also, I am ordering small products from China and sending them to customers all around the world. I am not sure how I should go about the taxes in this case. Could you assist me with that?

 

A: You can register your business with CIPC or continue trading as a Sole Proprietor.

Yes, you will need to submit an annual tax return and declare this income and the applicable qualifying expenses on your income tax return.

Assuming you are already registered with SARS personally for tax purposes, then by default your sole proprietorship will also be registered. There is no need to register the “business” with SARS as the sole proprietorship itself is not separately taxed on its income. Instead, all of its income and expenses get added to your own personal annual income tax return to be taxed together with any other income you may earn (e.g. salary, etc.). For more information, please read our blog here https://www.taxtim.com/za/guides/the-guide-to-small-business-tax

If you are self-employed and under 65 years old and earn taxable income above the tax threshold which is:

• R 91 250 for the 2023 tax year
• R87300 for the 2022 tax year
• R83100 for the 2021 tax year
• R79000 for the 2020 tax year

Then you are also required to register for and submit Provisional Tax Returns (IRP6).

Provisional taxpayers earn income from other sources on which no income tax has been deducted/withheld, therefore, they will need to declare this income on their IRP6 (provisional) tax return and pay the applicable tax thereon. For more information, please read our blog here https://www.taxtim.com/za/tax-guides/what-is-provisional-tax-how-and-when