Tags: small business owners, sars, turnover tax, tt03 form, income tax, taxable turnover

If you're a small business owner registered for turnover tax, you only have until the end of January to get your turnover tax payment in to SARS! Here's everything you need to know to fill in your turnover tax return (TTO3 form) right and on time.

31 January 2013 – that's the cut off for all turnover tax returns! And that means, you have just NINE days left to fill in your TT03 form () and submit it to SARS.
 
Here's what you need to do to get it right the first time, according to The Ultimate Turnover Tax Guide.
 
Complete your turnover tax return in six easy steps
 
Step #1: Complete the mandatory taxpayer information section that appears at the top of the TT03 form
 
For individuals and partners, you'll need to include:

• Your Turnover Tax reference number or income tax reference number;
• The year of assessment;
• Your personal details (name, surname, birthdate, ID number/passport number, marital status and contact details).

 
For companies/ CCs, taxpayer information, you'll need to include:

• The Turnover Tax reference number or income tax reference number for the business;
• The year of assessment;
• The company details (registered name, financial year end, physical address, registered address);
• Particulars of Representative (name and surname, ID number, their capacity and contact details).

 
Step #2: Complete the Voluntary Disclosure Programme (VDP) section
If you have an approved VDP agreement between your company/CC and SARS, make sure you:

• Put an 'X' in the 'Y' box
• Insert the VDP application number in the box provided.

 
Step #3: Complete the compulsory bank account details to ensure your tax refund (if you qualify) gets paid to the right account
 
Step #4: Sign the declaration
 
Step #5: Determine your taxable turnover
 
To work out your taxable income, you'll need to look at your total gross receipts, sales of business assets, tax allowances, turnover earned outside SA, government grants and much more. This can be tricky, which is why The Ultimate Turnover Tax Guide outlines the full process.
 
Once you have this figure, you'll need to use the following table to calculate how much turnover tax you'll need to pay to SARS:
 

Taxable turnover	Marginal tax rate
0- R100 000	0%
R100 001- R300 000	1% of each R1 above R100 000
R300 001- R500 000	R2 000 + 3% of each R1 above R300 000
R500 001 – R750 000	R8 000 + 5% of each R1 above R500 000
R750 001+	R20 500 + 7% of each R1 above R750 000

 
Step #6: Submit the TT03 form to SARS
You can submit your TT03 form via eFiling or manually by delivering it to SARS by hand. Don't forget to keep a date stamped copy for your record.
 
It's that easy! All you need to do now is diarise the end of August as the deadline for when you need to fill in your first TT02 form for the year under assessment and pay SARS the first 50% of your estimated annual liability. 
 
Source:

• Turnover Tax 101

Author: Karin Iten