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.

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 figures your Profit & Loss and your provisional tax estimate use, so the three can never disagree.

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. The big figure is what you should still be keeping aside right now.
4. Tap "Where that comes from" to see the whole working, line by line.

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 reads top to bottom as the working:

• Tax earned so far this year — 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 and provisional tax you've logged as paid.
• Keep this aside — what's left to hold. If you're ahead of it, the card says so instead.

Under the card, "Where that comes from" opens the full working: your profit for the year, what a full year looks like at that rate, the tax on it, the share you've earned, the margin, and the total. The percentage shown against your invoiced income is the RESULT of that sum, not the rule it started from.

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.

Log a payment to SARS so it comes off the jar

When you actually pay your income tax, provisional tax or turnover tax, log it as an expense and pick the right category. Worklog then takes it off the jar for you.

1. Log the payment as an expense using Log Expense, or the gold "Just tell me" button on the home screen (it opens a window titled Quick Log).
2. For the category, choose "Income tax paid to SARS" or "Provisional tax paid to SARS" — or, on Turnover Tax, "Turnover tax paid to SARS".
3. Come back to the Tax Jar and you'll see it on the "already paid to SARS" line.