YOU BOUGHT A THING.WHAT HAPPENS?

A whole home solar system produces no deduction, and only the panel portion of the invoice ever counted for the individual rebate.

There is no relief for this · Anyone

Split the invoice by line. New and unused solar PV panels were the only component that ever qualified for the s6C credit, and only when brought into use inside the closed window at a residence occupied by the taxpayer. Everything else on the quote, inverter, batteries, racking, cabling, certificate of compliance and labour, was outside it. There is no wear and tear on a private residence's equipment because the house is not a trade.

A gas geyser at home is not deductible, but keep the invoice because it adds to the base cost of the house for capital gains one day.

No deduction now, it reduces tax when you sell · Anyone

Replacing an electric geyser with a gas one is an improvement to a private dwelling. There is no income tax deduction, but qualifying improvement costs form part of base cost and reduce any capital gain when you eventually sell. For most people the primary residence exclusion swallows the gain anyway, but if you exceed it, or the property is not your primary residence, the receipt matters.

For a restaurant, cafe or caterer the stove is an asset written off over time and the gas refills are a straight deductible running cost; at home neither is deductible.

The answer turns on the facts · Sole proprietor or freelancer

Gas refills consumed in producing income are ordinary trading stock or overhead, fully deductible in the year. The stove itself is equipment subject to wear and tear, or a full write-off if it falls under the small item threshold. If the same bottles feed your house braai, apportion. A gas stove in a private kitchen gets nothing, and if it is built in it is an improvement adding to base cost rather than a deduction.

A business generator is written off over its useful life under wear and tear, not in one go under the renewable energy allowance.

Written off over time, not all at once · Sole proprietor or freelancer

A diesel or petrol generator is plant used in the production of income, so it qualifies for a wear and tear allowance over the write-off period SARS accepts for that class of asset. It burns fossil fuel, so it does not get the accelerated renewable energy treatment that solar gets. If the generator is small enough it may fall under the small item write-off treatment, which lets low value assets be written off in full: check the current threshold rather than assuming.

At home a heat pump gives no deduction and only adds to base cost; in a business there is an ordinary write-off and possibly an energy efficiency allowance if you go through certification.

The answer turns on the facts · Anyone

For a private residence this is an improvement, treated exactly like the gas geyser: no deduction, add it to base cost. For a business, the unit is plant subject to wear and tear. There is also a separate energy efficiency savings allowance for businesses that achieve measured savings, but it requires a certificate from the designated national body and independent measurement and verification, which is only worth doing at meaningful scale.

Backup power kit for a business is deductible over time, but whether it rides on the accelerated renewable allowance or ordinary wear and tear depends on whether it forms part of a renewable generation system.

The answer turns on the facts · Sole proprietor or freelancer

Where the inverter and storage are integral parts of a solar generation installation used in the business, they are generally treated as part of that s12B plant. Where a business installs an inverter and batteries with no generation at all, simply charging off the grid to ride out load shedding, that is ordinary plant and equipment written off under wear and tear rather than under the renewable energy allowance. The distinction matters because one gives you the money back immediately and the other spreads it.

An inverter for your house gets you nothing on your tax return, and it never qualified for the individual solar rebate either.

There is no relief for this · Anyone

The individual solar credit was written to cover solar PV panels specifically. Inverters, batteries, mounting hardware, DB board work and installation labour were outside it, even when they appeared on the same invoice as qualifying panels. A domestic inverter is also not an income producing asset, so there is no wear and tear claim.

Swapping failed globes for LEDs in a business is usually a deductible repair or maintenance cost, but a full relamping of the building can be capital.

The answer turns on the facts · Sole proprietor or freelancer

Replacing individual light fittings as they fail, in the ordinary course of maintaining the premises, is repairs and maintenance deductible in the year. A planned building-wide retrofit that improves the property rather than restoring it can be capital, in which case it is written off as plant or as part of the building depending on how it is fixed. Scale and intent decide it.

Batteries at home give you no tax relief at all, and they were specifically outside the individual solar rebate.

There is no relief for this · Anyone

Storage was excluded from the individual solar credit, which targeted generation from panels only. A battery at a private residence is also personal capital expenditure, so it produces no deduction and no wear and tear.

A generator at your house is a personal purchase with no tax relief of any kind.

There is no relief for this · Anyone

It is not used in the production of income, so there is no general deduction and no wear and tear. It is also not renewable, so none of the energy allowances touch it, and it was never within the individual solar rebate.

Fuel burnt to keep the business running is fully deductible, fuel burnt at your house is not, and if you buy it in one tank you have to split it.

Claim the business share only · Sole proprietor or freelancer

Generator fuel used in the production of income is an ordinary operating expense deductible in the year incurred. The problem is proof: fuel is usually bought at a filling station on the same card as your car fuel, so you need to be able to show what went into the generator. A simple generator log recording run hours and litres is what turns this from a guess into a claim.

Only the share of your household electricity that relates to a qualifying home office is claimable, worked out on floor area, and a salaried employee usually cannot claim it at all.

Claim the business share only · Sole proprietor or freelancer

A sole proprietor with a home office that meets the exclusive and regular use test can apportion household running costs, including electricity, on the ratio of the office floor area to the total floor area of the home. Prepaid purchases count the same as an account, you just need the receipts or the meter statement. Salaried employees are heavily restricted by s23(m) and R-EMP-008.

Hiring a generator for the business is a straight running cost and comes off in full in the year you incur it.

You can claim this · Sole proprietor or freelancer

Unlike buying one, hire charges are revenue expenditure incurred in the production of income, so the whole amount is deductible in that year with no write-off period to manage and no recoupment when it goes back. Fuel supplied with the hire is deductible on the same basis.

If the municipality pays you or credits your account for exported power, that is income, and the moment you earn it your solar system starts to look like a trade.

The answer turns on the facts · Anyone

Amounts received or accrued for electricity you export are gross income unless something exempts them. Where you are simply credited against your own consumption, the position is arguable and turns on whether an amount actually accrued to you. Once you are genuinely selling power you have started a trade, which can open the door to claiming allowances on the generating plant, but it also means declaring the receipts and potentially registering as a provisional taxpayer.

A solar geyser at home is not deductible and it did not qualify for the individual solar rebate, because that credit was for electricity generating PV panels only.

There is no relief for this · Anyone

The panels on a solar geyser are thermal collectors, they heat water, they do not generate electricity. The individual credit was written around solar photovoltaic panels. The cost is a home improvement, so it adds to the base cost of the property and nothing more.

Installing solar or backup power at a rental property is capital spending on the property, not a running cost, so it is not an immediate deduction.

The answer turns on the facts · Landlord

Rental running expenses like rates, levies, bond interest and genuine repairs are deductible against rental income. Installing a solar or backup system where there was none is an improvement, which is not deductible and instead increases the base cost of the property for capital gains. Where the installation is plant used in the production of income rather than a fixture, a capital allowance may be available, which is a fact question about how the system is fixed and used. Apportion if the property was only let for part of the year.

Solar panels on your own home are not a tax deduction, and the special individual solar rebate that did exist was a narrow, once-off credit that has closed.

There is no relief for this · Anyone

Your home is not a trade, so nothing about it is deductible under the general deduction rule. The only individual relief was the s6C solar energy tax credit: a rebate (a reduction of tax owed, not a deduction from income) of 25 percent of the cost of new and unused solar PV panels, capped at R15,000, for panels brought into use at a residence in a single time limited window that has since ended. It applied to the panels only, not to the inverter, the batteries, the mounting, the wiring or the installer's labour. If you did not claim it in the year the panels came into use, it is not something you can add to a later return.

This is the real one: solar generation assets used in a business get an accelerated capital allowance, and small scale plant is written off in full in the first year.

A specific capital write-off applies · Sole proprietor or freelancer

Section 12B gives an accelerated write-off for machinery and plant used by the taxpayer in the production of income for generating electricity from renewable sources. Solar photovoltaic plant below a defined generation capacity threshold is written off entirely in the year it is brought into use; larger installations are spread over a short period rather than the normal wear and tear life. A temporary enhanced version of the allowance (s12BA) also existed for assets brought into use in a limited window: confirm whether your bring-into-use date falls inside it. This is a genuinely different regime from the individual rebate in R-SOL-001 and the two must not be mixed up.

Running a business from home does not turn your solar system into a business asset, and for a salaried employee it almost certainly buys you nothing.

The answer turns on the facts · Sole proprietor or freelancer

A sole proprietor with a qualifying home office may be able to bring a floor-area share of genuine home office running costs into account, but a solar installation is a capital improvement to a private dwelling rather than a running cost, and the rules that restrict domestic and private premises expenditure apply. A salaried employee is restricted much further: ordinary work costs are blocked, and only a narrow set of home office items survives. This is the exact interaction covered by R-SOL-002 and it is fact heavy.

Trading stock destroyed by a power failure is deductible, but you claim it by writing the stock down properly, not by adding a separate loss line.

You can claim this · Sole proprietor or freelancer

Spoiled stock falls out of closing stock, which automatically reduces taxable income without any extra entry. What you need is evidence: a dated write-off record listing what was lost, the load shedding schedule or an outage notification, and photographs. If insurance pays out, the recovery is taxable and nets against the loss, so you cannot claim the full spoilage and keep the payout untaxed. Lost trading hours and lost sales are not deductible, because you never earned the income in the first place.

A UPS bought for business equipment is claimable, and if it is cheap enough it may be written off in full in the year instead of over time.

The answer turns on the facts · Sole proprietor or freelancer

A UPS used in the trade is plant subject to wear and tear. Low value assets below the small item threshold can generally be written off in full in the year they are brought into use, and most small UPS units fall well under it. If the same UPS also keeps your household router alive after hours, apportion honestly. For a salaried employee, R-EMP-008 blocks the claim in almost every case.

Wind and hydro generation plant used in a business falls under the same accelerated renewable energy allowance as solar.

A specific capital write-off applies · Sole proprietor or freelancer

The renewable energy allowance is not solar-specific. It covers plant used in the production of income to generate electricity from wind, hydropower and biomass as well, with different capacity thresholds and write-off patterns depending on the source and size. Because the categories and thresholds differ by technology, this one needs to be read against the section for your specific installation rather than assumed to match solar.