This year’s Budget provides a greater incentive to employers to offer bursaries to employees, while at the same time incentivising employees to exploit this benefit.
Find out if your employer offers bursaries as a benefit of employment. If it does, there is no income threshold that applies to you if the bursary is for your studies. But if you want the bursary from your employer for a relative, the Budget proposes the remuneration threshold be increased from R250 000 to R400 000. So if you earn up to R400 000 a year, you would qualify for a bursary (if your employer offers one) to cover the cost of any studies a relative may want to do.
Rob Cooper, director of legislation and proposed legislation at Sage HR & Payroll, says bursaries are wonderful for employees, employers and the country as whole, “and should be seriously considered by all employers”.
The benefit to the employer is a deduction against taxable income and therefore a saving at the company tax rate of 28 percent.
It has been proposed that the bursary for a basic education – Grade R to Grade 12 – be increased from R10 000 to R15 000 a year (in other words, the bursary is tax-free up to R15 000), and from R30 000 to R40 000 a year for a bursary in respect of higher qualifications, from a higher certificate to a doctorate degree.