Online tax tool for small businesses

Published Nov 1, 2016

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TaxTim, which provides an online service that helps individuals to complete and file their tax returns, has launched a tax return tool for small businesses.

The tool provides provisional and annual tax return services for small and medium-sized enterprises that:

* Are registered with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission; and

* Have turnover or revenue of less than R1 million during the tax year.

TaxTim charges R1 199 to complete an annual tax return (ITR14) and R49 for a provisional return.

A survey conducted by TaxTim this year found that 58 percent of small business owners manage their companies’ books, and most do not have any formal training in accounting or tax. Only 13 percent of owners said they outsourced the completion of their tax returns to a professional.

Like its tax-return service for individuals, TaxTim’s digital assistant guides users through the company tax return step-by-step, without the need to understand technical accounting and tax terms. Questions are presented in a logical order in plain English, and, where necessary, are linked to pre-formulated calculators or tools.

The calculators and tools enable users to:

* Determine whether the business qualifies as a small business corporation;

* Calculate wear and tear or depreciation values on assets or equipment;

* Work out whether certain expenses are tax-deductible; and

* Calculate complex asset disposals to record capital gains or losses.

Throughout the process, as the user responds, TaxTim records the answers and, once completed, presents the results with all income, expenses, allowances, calculations and deductions filled in the correct place on the ITR14 and checked for accuracy and compliance. The taxpayer must copy the information across to the ITR14 generated on eFiling and submit his or her return.

TaxTim plans to update the tool so that it can be used by businesses earning more than R1 million year, to provide a direct link to eFiling to allow for one-click submission, and to integrate the tool with cloud accounting packages, such as Sage, Xero and SMEasy.

For more information or to register, go to www.taxtim.com

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