What is the benefit of actually spending time looking at your tax return?

By Marc Sevitz · Updated 16 January 2012

You always hear of people saying they are terrified of Tax and they just hand it over to some accountant who does it for them and they never actually see it until the next year when the whole process starts again. In most cases the accountant never even asks for any information and just submits a tax return based on a simple IRP5. Now that may be great for someone who earns a salary and has absolutely nothing else going on, tax related that is, but the poor ignorant taxpayer is potentially throwing away hundreds of Rands on an “expert” who isn’t even doing their job properly. Not to mention the possible refund the taxpayer is missing out on.

Where am I going with this you may be asking? MAXIMISE your possible refund! And how to do that is by actively being involved in your tax return process and by understanding how it works! The point of this blog isn’t to bore you with complicated tax issues; rather it is to make you aware of the benefits of looking at your own return.

BIGGER refund;

QUICKER refund;

FEWER penalties;

BETTER understanding.

By just handing over your IRP5 to some accountant you cannot be sure that they are asking the right questions. There are a whole lot of other incomes and expenses that apply that aren’t shown on your IRP5. Some will increase your tax liability while most will in fact reduce your tax liability meaning you will actually get money BACK from SARS.

Don’t be caught out with a smaller refund or even worse high penalties! Every omission on a tax return can lead to either outcome.

Take charge of understand your tax return!

Use TaxTim to assist!

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