Use the tax jar

What the tax jar does

The tax jar tells you how much of the money in your account isn't really yours, because it's going to SARS at the end of the tax year. It works that out from your own figures for the year so far — your profit, or on Turnover Tax what you've received — applies the tax scale your business is actually on, and takes the share of the year you've already earned. You don't have to move any real money or do any sums.

If the business opened during the tax year and didn't bring its records over from another system, answer No to "Did the business trade before your books start?" in Business details (Tax & SARS) and give the day it opened: the Tax Jar and your IRP6 then count that first tax year from that day, by the day to the end of February rather than twelve months, with the year's full rebates, as SARS gives them, and costs from before it counted once and no further than the year's income from the business (section 11A — what's left comes off the next year's figures by itself), and the Turnover Tax ceiling is cut to the same months, as SARS cuts it.

It is NOT a flat percentage of what you invoice. It used to be, and that was wrong: income tax is charged on profit, not on turnover — and even Turnover Tax, which is charged on what you receive, starts at nil — so a flat slice of every sale could be many times what you actually owe. The jar now works from the same profit your Profit & Loss shows and the same tax scale your provisional tax estimate uses.

Open the Tax Jar

1. Go to Financials, then Tax Jar.
2. Check the tax year at the top. The jar is worked out per tax year, 1 March to the end of February — use the arrows to look at a different one.
3. Read the navy card on the 📋 Overview tab. The big figure is what you should still be keeping aside right now.
4. Tap 🧮 Working to see the whole sum, step by step, or ⚙️ Settings to change how much extra the jar holds.

There is no bank-account selector on this screen, and that is deliberate. Profit is a whole-business figure — filtering it to one account would produce a number that doesn't mean anything.

Read the numbers on the screen

The navy card opens on the answer — Keep this aside for SARS, or You're ahead by when you've paid SARS more than the jar needs — and then, under How it adds up, the three lines it comes from:

• Tax owed on what you’ve earned so far — your profit for the year so far, scaled up to a full year, taxed on your scale, then reduced back to the months that have actually passed.
• Plus a little over, so you're not short — a small safety margin, shown as its own line rather than hidden inside a rate, so you can see what is tax and what is buffer.
• Less: already paid to SARS — income tax, provisional tax and turnover tax you've paid towards this tax year. A payment counts towards the tax year it's for, even if it left the bank after that year ended: one recorded when you marked a return filed is that return's year, and one logged in Banking, off a bank statement or with Quick Log is the year you picked under “Which tax year is it for?”. One with no year picked counts in the tax year it's dated in.

The 🧮 Working tab has the full sum, numbered: your profit for the year, any tax payments added back, what a full year looks like at that rate, the tax on it, the share you've earned, the margin, what should be in the jar, less what you've paid — ending on the same figure the navy card opens with. The line under the big figure — “About …% of the money you’ve taken in” — is the RESULT of that sum, not the rule it started from. It is the share for the whole jar, so once you've paid SARS something it reads “…, less what you've paid SARS”.

Why your jar may be smaller than you expect

The jar follows the tax scale your business is actually on, and most of those scales start at nothing. A sole proprietor has rebates that come off before any tax is owed. A Small Business Corporation pays nil on its first slice of profit. A business on Turnover Tax is charged on receipts under the Sixth Schedule instead, where the first band is also nil.

So a profitable business can genuinely owe very little, and the jar will say so. If your legal form is not set, the jar assumes a sole proprietor — set it under Business details and the scale, and the jar, follow it. Your age matters too where you're taxed as an individual, because the rebate grows at 65 and again at 75.

Record a payment to SARS so it comes off the jar

When you pay provisional tax, or a TT02 on Turnover Tax, record it where you mark that period filed. Worklog logs the expense for you and takes it off the jar for the tax year that period is for — even if you pay late, after that year has ended.

1. On the Tax Jar's Overview, the card under the figure names the next IRP6 to mark (TT02 on Turnover Tax) and when it is due. Tap Open IRP6 (Open TT02) and SARS opens on that period; or open SARS yourself on the Income tax tab and pick the period you paid.
2. In the box under “✔️ Mark IRP6 P1 as filed” (P2 for Period 2, TT02 on Turnover Tax), choose “Paid — record the money too” and fill in what you paid, the date and the account it left. Then tap the button.
3. Come back to the Tax Jar and you'll see it on the "already paid to SARS" line of the year it was for — paid after that year ended, press ‹ to step back to it. The card stops asking for that period and says what you did instead: ✅ marked filed with what you paid, already off the jar — paid after the tax year ended, that it's still that year's tax, so it's off that year's jar and not the next one's — and if some of it cleared tax you owed SARS on your start date, how much; ✅ nothing to pay; or ⏳ marked as not paid yet (when you pay, log it in Banking and pick the tax year it's for — it then comes off that year's jar whatever day it left, and the card adds a line saying what you logged in Banking is off the jar — and once it's there, don't also mark the period again with the payment, or it counts twice). Then it asks for the next period, by name.

Change how much extra the jar holds

Tap the ⚙️ Settings tab for the jar’s one setting: the margin it aims over the tax you already owe — None, 10% (recommended), 20% or 30%. It is saved to your business the moment you tap it (the card says ✔️ Saved), so the screen and the dashboard tile agree. Below it, for a sole proprietor or partner on normal tax, a read-only “From your profile” card shows your age and the people on your medical aid (and a partner’s share), with a Change these link to Business details. Your tax regime and legal form are named on the line under the Tax Jar title; the banner with the returns they mean, and a Change link to Business details for the owner, is at the top of this Settings tab. If no legal form is saved yet, the Overview says so, because until then the jar works the tax out as a sole proprietor.

What if you were set up differently?

The card at the foot of the 🧮 Working tab prices the same full year of profit and the same full year of turnover on every set-up you could be on — sole proprietor, company, a company qualifying as an SBC, Turnover Tax — with a YOU NOW pill on your current one and the difference beside each. It is a reading, not a switch: nothing here changes your business, and it follows your set-up by itself — change it in Business details and YOU NOW moves. Turnover Tax is shown as unavailable when your annualised turnover is past its ceiling. In a loss year every set-up taxed on profit shows R 0,00, and the card says why: there is no profit to tax. Turnover Tax is charged on what comes in, so it can still cost something then.

Take the jar with you

• At the bottom of the screen, 📄 PDF gives you the jar and where it comes from on your letterhead, and 📊 CSV / Excel gives you the same figures as a spreadsheet. On a phone, each opens your phone's share menu with the file attached, so you can send it on WhatsApp or email, or save it; on a computer it downloads.