The National Treasury on Monday repeated its warning to those who claim tax against car allowances to stop using its ”deemed” expense schedule as a means of reducing their tax obligations.
Briefing Parliament’s finance portfolio committee, Treasury tax director Martin Grote said the schedule was a ”huge vehicle for people to actually reduce their tax payment”.
”I think one should really now stop this nonsense, and I have been in discussions with [auditing firms] KPMG and Deloitte and Touche, and they all say that ‘we are amazed that you only come up with this now’.”
Last week, Treasury Director General Lesetja Kganyago said of those taxpayers who claimed for a car allowance, close to three-quarters of them claimed against ”deemed” rather than actual kilometres.
This meant that rather than submitting a record of actual business kilometres travelled, they claimed the full number of kilometres allowed by law.
In his Budget speech last week, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said he was concerned about tax losses resulting from motor-vehicle travel allowances.
”In the coming year, we plan to review taxation of the motor-vehicle allowance, and the ad valorem duty structure on motor vehicles,” he said at the time.
According to the South African Revenue Service, a large number of taxpayers rely on the deemed expense schedule ”primarily as a result of the schedule’s inherent overestimation of actual business cost”.
This overestimation means many taxpayers are able to deduct amounts that are actually private expenses.
Grote said the motor industry would be consulted on the review process.
”Everything is so intertwined when it comes to the motor-vehicle industry. ”You don’t want to make an intervention and shock the industry, which is one of the more successful exporters of manufactured goods. So we need to engage with them.”
He said the number of South Africans who spent more and more money on luxury vehicles, to take advantage of the deemed expense schedule, could not be tolerated.
Grote said he wondered if such people were not aware of the total charges on an imported vehicle.
”As rational economic beings, people want to reduce their taxes. If people see what the huge charge is on a luxury vehicle, maybe they will buy down … which is a benefit impact on our balance of payments.” — Sapa