Filing tax returns as an individual is often a stressful exercise as the penalties involved in non-compliance can hit your pocket hard.

If you’re eyeing your shoebox filing system in the corner and dreading the tax deadline which is creeping closer, you’re probably not overly confident of being 100% tax compliant or being able to even meet the deadline.

Ensuring tax compliance relies a lot on knowing what is expected from you as an individual tax payer. The administration of this should ideally happen throughout the financial year so that when tax season arrives you have everything documented and can easily access this information.

Easier said than done? This needn’t be the case.

Think about it. You run your life and home very much like a business – there is income and there are expenses, like travel, entertainment, school fees, employees who work in your home or on your property, medical bills, petrol, food, utilities, rent or a bond, etc.

It’s as important for an individual tax payer to document all of these expenses as it would be for a small business, and file receipts necessary for the submission of your tax return.

Automating your accounting, including your tax responsibilities, is a good way to save time and money and ensure you are able to meet tax deadlines and avoid penalties.

Accounting software solutions, like QuickBooks, are not only helping thousands of businesses remain tax compliant, but thousands of individuals too.

The important thing to remember about individual tax is that your accounting software is only as good as the information you feed into it.

There are good incentives available for those having to file a return for individual tax, but if you’re not recording all your expenses you could miss out on some of the rebates offered by SARS.

Look for the following in a professional accounting system:

• Free trial option: This is a great way to familiarise yourself with a system and see if it fits your needs.
• Ease of use: You should not have to know anything about accounting to be up and running in minutes on a good system.
• Full automation of accounting tasks and easy report generation when you want it.
• Affordability: Accounting software is an investment in your future financial security but this doesn’t mean it should break the bank. The long-term benefits of a good accounting software system equate to a good return on investment, but purchase within your budget and the returns will be even sweeter.

The rates of tax for individuals in South Africa are as follows:

Individual income tax (otherwise known as personal income tax) rates in South Africa range from 18% (for income below R188 000 per annum) to 41% (for amounts over R701 300), although the tax threshold of R75 000 (for people below the age of 65) means that anyone earning less than this amount pays no income tax.

At least 4.3 million people across the world choose QuickBooks. Call 010 203 4300 or email info@easybiztech.co.za today.