School fees
Not deductible
School fees are not deductible in South Africa, in any amount, for any taxpayer.
There is no relief for this · Anyone
There is no deduction, no rebate and no credit for educating your own children. This is unlike some other countries, which is where the expectation usually comes from. Uniforms, textbooks, stationery, transport and extramural costs are equally not deductible.
Where people go wrong
Trying to route fees through a business, a trust or a family company to make them deductible. The expenditure is still private, and paying an owner's personal school fees out of a company generally creates a taxable fringe benefit or a deemed dividend on top of a disallowed deduction, so you end up worse off than if you had just paid them.
Does buying it save you tax?
No. There is nothing here. The one legitimate route worth knowing is an employer bursary for an employee's child, which can be exempt within prescribed limits and prescribed conditions, but it is a real employer scheme with rules, not a relabelling of your own fees.
Authority s23(a)
excluded by Salaried employees cannot deduct ordinary work costs
may unlock Employer bursary exemption
Personal and family
Research, not advice.
This has not yet been checked against the Act or a SARS guide, so treat it as a starting
point and a question for your practitioner, not a claim you can make.
Bursary for an employee's child or relative
Deductible
Deductible for the employer, and exempt for the employee up to a cap that depends on the employee's remuneration and the level of study.
You can claim this · Company
A bursary granted to a relative of an employee is exempt only if the employee's remuneration is below a prescribed proxy threshold, and only up to a monetary cap that differs for schooling versus higher education. Anything above the cap, or any bursary where the employee earns over the threshold, is a taxable fringe benefit in the employee's hands and must run through payroll. A larger cap applies where the relative has a disability.
Where people go wrong
Again, salary sacrifice. Structuring a scheme where employees give up salary so the company pays their children's school fees is specifically blocked, and SARS has attacked these schemes directly. The other common error is applying the higher education cap to primary or secondary school fees.
Does buying it save you tax?
A strong, well liked benefit for lower paid staff where you stay inside the thresholds, and better value than the same rand paid as salary. Above the thresholds it is just taxable pay with extra paperwork.
Authority s10(1)(q)
governed by General deduction for expenditure in producing income
governed by Employer bursary exemption
Staff
Research, not advice.
This has not yet been checked against the Act or a SARS guide, so treat it as a starting
point and a question for your practitioner, not a claim you can make.
Creche, daycare and aftercare fees
Not deductible
South Africa has no childcare deduction or childcare credit, so creche and aftercare fees give you nothing.
There is no relief for this · Anyone
These are private and domestic costs. It does not matter that you only pay them so that you can go to work, and it does not matter whether you are salaried or self employed. There is also no dependant rebate for children in the South African system.
Where people go wrong
Arguing that childcare is a cost of earning your income because you cannot work without it. That argument has been tried and it does not succeed. Putting the nanny or au pair on the business payroll when they only look after your children is worse, because it is a disallowed deduction plus a payroll problem.
Does buying it save you tax?
No. There is no tax relief for childcare in South Africa at all. If you employ a childminder in your home, focus instead on getting the UIF registration right, which is a legal duty rather than a tax benefit.
Authority s23(a)
excluded by Salaried employees cannot deduct ordinary work costs
Personal and family
Research, not advice.
This has not yet been checked against the Act or a SARS guide, so treat it as a starting
point and a question for your practitioner, not a claim you can make.
Paying a family member's expenses for them
Not deductible
Supporting family is not deductible, and if the person is not legally your dependant the payments can count as donations.
There is no relief for this · Anyone
Maintenance and support payments are private expenditure with no deduction. Payments made to a person you are legally obliged to maintain are generally outside donations tax, but generosity to relatives you have no legal duty towards is a donation and counts against the annual exemption. Medical expenses are the one significant exception worth checking: qualifying medical costs you pay for certain dependants can feed into the additional medical expenses tax credit even where the person is not on your scheme.
Where people go wrong
Missing the medical credit. People pay a parent's hospital account, assume nothing is claimable because they are not a dependant on the medical aid, and never test it against the additional medical expenses rules. Keep the invoices and the proof that you paid.
Does buying it save you tax?
Only the medical portion has any real chance of giving something back, and even then it comes through a credit with a floor rather than a straight deduction. Everything else is spending, not tax planning.
Authority s6B
governed by Donations tax on gifts
governed by Maintenance payments are not deductible
may unlock Medical costs paid for someone not on your scheme
Lending and finance
Research, not advice.
This has not yet been checked against the Act or a SARS guide, so treat it as a starting
point and a question for your practitioner, not a claim you can make.
Maintenance paid for a child or an ex spouse
Not deductible
Maintenance you pay, whether for a child or an ex spouse, is not deductible.
There is no relief for this · Anyone
The payments are treated as an application of your after tax income, not as expenditure in producing income. A court order does not change this. It makes no difference whether the maintenance is paid monthly, as a lump sum, or as direct payment of school fees, medical aid or a bond instalment on their behalf.
Where people go wrong
Assuming South Africa follows the older overseas pattern where the payer deducts and the recipient is taxed. It does not. The related practical trap is paying an ex spouse's medical costs and forgetting that those may still qualify as your medical expenses where the person is your dependant for medical purposes, which is a separate and often missed claim.
Does buying it save you tax?
No relief. Budget for maintenance out of after tax money, because the tax system gives you nothing back for it.
Authority s23(a)
governed by Maintenance payments are not deductible
may unlock Medical costs paid for someone not on your scheme
Personal and family
Research, not advice.
This has not yet been checked against the Act or a SARS guide, so treat it as a starting
point and a question for your practitioner, not a claim you can make.
