The Income Tax Act no. 58 of 1962 allows taxpayers who receive a travel allowance to claim a deduction for the use of their private vehicles for business purposes. It is important to note that the travel between your home and place of work cannot be claimed and is regarded as private travel.

In order to claim a deduction, the first step is to record your vehicle’s odometer reading on 1 March each year (the first day of the tax year each year for individuals), and again on the last day of February the following year (the last day of the tax year for individuals). These opening and closing readings give you total kilometers travelled for the year.

Without these readings, you cannot claim a tax deduction.

Once you have taken down these readings and worked out your total travel for the year, you can start calculating your travel deduction.

First you need to calculate what portion of the total kilometers travelled was for business use.

It is now compulsory to keep a logbook of all your travel in which you record what travel was for business and what travel was for private purposes if you want to claim a travel deduction. The logbook must contain the following minimum information:

• Date of travel
• Kilometers travelled
• Business travel  details (where and reason for the trip)

Note:  Where you used more than one vehicle in the tax year, a separate logbook must be kept for each vehicle that was used.

Without a logbook, you will not be able to claim a travel deduction.

You are now ready to calculate the amount of your claim.

As a taxpayer you have two choices:

1. You can calculate your claim based on the table of costs supplied by SARS each year. You will find the costs tables which apply to the tax year from 01 March 2014 to 28 February on SARS’s website (www.sars.gov.za). You need to have a kept an accurate record of all your expenses – simply use the costs linked to the value of your vehicle.
2. Alternatively, you can calculate your claim based on the actual costs. You will have to have kept an accurate record of all your expenses during the year, including fuel, maintenance, lease and insurance costs.

Please note that you must retain your logbook for a period of at least five years as you may be required to submit it to SARS for verification of your claim. SARS accepts electronic logbooks as an acceptable record.

SARS reserves the right to audit and query the content or information recorded by the taxpayer in any logbook.

For more information and for the SARS TRAVEL LOGBOOK  visit the SARS website on www.sars.gov.za, or call the SARS Contact Centre on 0800 00 SARS (7277), or visit your nearest SARS branch.

This article is a general information sheet and should not be used or relied on as professional advice. No liability can be accepted for any errors or omissions nor for any loss or damage arising from reliance upon any information herein. Always contact your financial adviser for specific and detailed advice.