Last year almost one million taxpayers did not submit a tax return because they earned less than R120 000 during the year. While many of these employees rightly rejoiced in the fact that they may stay below SARS’s radar, others sadly missed out on a welcome cash-back from the taxman. How can this be?

Employees who earn less than R120 000 per year, have a single employer, pay PAYE and have no additional income or deductions other than those on their tax certificates, do not have to submit a return. Unfortunately, many taxpayers are not aware that they have tax-deductible expenses that do not appear on their certificates. By not filing a return, they never inform SARS of the additional deductions and miss their refund. Their employers, unknowingly, have paid more tax on the employees’ behalf than was necessary.

There are many deductions that are outside the employer’s field of vision, but the most relevant ones are private retirement fund contributions, donations and medical expenses.

If the employer is unaware that the employee is contributing to his own retirement annuity (RA), for example, the deductible portion of the RA premium would not appear on the employer’s tax certificate. The deductible amount varies, depending on the size of the employeeís salary, and whether he’s also contributing to an employer fund, but the employee should be able to deduct at least R1 750 of his RA premium from his taxable income.

Donations to public benefit organisations (section 18A) can also be deducted, up to an annual limit. Many schools and churches are registered as section 18A organisations – you may be surprised at how the taxman rewards your generosity towards these institutions.

Wishing you something back at the end of this filing season!

I don’t know a single person who doesn’t enjoy getting something back from the taxman at the end of the year. But some prefer to stay as far below the taxman’s radar as possible – by not registering as tax payers or by not submitting a tax return. If you are one of these, you could be shooting yourself in the foot and robbing your own household of extra cash in the bank. Let’s look at a few scenarios where registering as a taxpayer or submitting a tax return could benefit either the household and/or the taxpayer.

In the first scenario a spouse is employed by the husband or wife’s business. The husband may be officially retired according to SARS’s records, but in reality receiving a salary – off the record – from the cash earnings of his wife’s business for administrating or supervising part of the business. The husband doesn’t want the hassle of submitting a tax return every year and has convinced his wife, the owner of the business, to not disclose his salary to SARS. Other than the fact that the non-disclosure of income is an illegal action, the husband could also be robbing his own household of after-tax earnings. In which circumstances would this be the case?

If the husband’s salary is disclosed in the business’s books, the business would be entitled to deduct that salary from its income, which results in a lower taxable income and less tax payable by the business every year. Even if the employee spouse now has to pay tax, that amount would be exceeded by the tax saving of the employer spouse in all circumstances where the employee spouse’s tax rate is lower than the employer spouse’s tax rate. The household (the employer and employee as a combined entity) will therefore be left with more after-tax income by disclosing the salary.

There are a few administrative hassles, though. In the scenario above, the wife would have to register with Revenue as the employer of the husband and contribute 1% of his salary to UIF every month and the husband will also sacrifice 1% of his salary (capped at R125 per month) to UIF. If the salary exceeds the 2009/2010 tax thresholds (R54 200 for persons under the age of 65 and R84 200 for those above 65) the wife would also have to deduct PAYE and/or SITE from the salary. If the husband earns less than these thresholds, he would not have to be registered as a taxpayer with SARS, but the business still enjoys the tax relief of deducting his salary from its taxable income.

To prevent businesses from abusing the potential tax relief associated with employing spouses, the Income Tax Act stipulates that only the payment for services by a spouse that truly contributes to the trading income of the business may be deducted as business expenses. The Act also specifically prohibits the deduction of any domestic or private expenses. In the scenario above, it would therefore not be possible for the wife to deduct payment to the husband for moving the lawn of their private residence or for managing their household chores. Excessive salaries will also raise a flag with SARS. If you pay your spouse a salary that is higher than the going rate in the market for similar services, SARS may disallow that business deduction.

But if you are truly employed by the business and paid a market-related salary, disclosing your income could be a relatively easy and painless way to leave you, as a couple, with significantly more after-tax income at the end of the year.