We Found A Super Easy Way To Get Your Taxes Out of the Way

If like me, you’ve been living in denial for the past few months then it’s time someone reminded you that the tax season deadline is looming. Seriously it’s just a matter of weeks away which means there is only so much time left for you to get some extra Christmas spending money back from SARS. If the possibility of getting some of your hard earned cash back from the national coffers isn’t enough motivation for you to hurry up and do your taxes, then maybe TaxTim will be. No, we don’t mean your annoying friend Tim, the accountant who’s always bugging you to pull finger and do your damn taxes, we’re talking about the easiest way to do your taxes in the history of doing taxes.

TaxTim is the brain child of local entrepreneurs Evan Robinson and Marc Sevitz; two guys who are absolutely passionate about taxes (someone has to be, I guess) and solving problems. The idea for an easy-to-use tax system came to Evan at a time when he found himself deep in the proverbial tax doo-doo. In 2011 he tried to do his own taxes and failed so he begged his friend Marc (a guy who knew lots about taxes) to help him sort his way through the muck.

Because Marc was such a whizz at the whole tax thing, he made the process quick and easy for Evan (and here’s where the light bulb moment happened) So Evan thought; “What if I could put Marc’s brain in a machine, then put it online, so that everyone could have their very own affordable tax man to help them?” And, that gentlemen is how TaxTim was born. The two organised some funding from Google (as one does) and now a few years later they have helped over 700 000 tax-hating South Africans do their taxes.

Tax Tim

It’s pretty genius really! We gave the TaxTim system a try and it is pretty freaking awesome! All you need to sort out your taxes in no time at all is your IRP5 (if you’re employed you should get this from your employer, if you’re unemployed you really should stop reading now as taxes don’t apply to you), and a few other bits and bobs like tax certificates from your medical aid, investment companies and what not. From there you log on to TaxTim and answer a series of easy to follow questions until TaxTim autofills your tax return. The system is beyond easy to use and is kind of like a tax Wizard or walkthrough.

Once you’re done filling out your tax return you can either have TaxTim submit it to SARS for you or download it and submit it yourself using e-filing or the old school method of walking to a SARS office and standing in the queue for several hours where you will have ample time to consider what you are doing with your life… and if McDonalds’ burgers are in fact made from real meat.

The TaxTim system is also pretty affordable when you consider how much a real life tax accountant will cost you. You can purchase the TaxTim Lite package at R199 which includes 1 professional tax return and free tax deadline reminders or splash out on the TaxTim Smart package at R299 which offers 1 professional tax return, three priority tax questions and online document storage for all your tax documents (don’t forget you need to keep these for up to 5 years!).

So, to solve your headache, check out TaxTim here.