sars travel log book example

How to Fill SARS Travel Logbook

If you use your private car for business purposes and receive a travel allowance from your employer, you can claim a deduction on your annual income tax return. To do this, you must have a SARS travel logbook where you record your vehicle’s odometer reading and details of your business travel. This article explains how you fill out your SARS travel logbook. 

How Do I Fill SARS Travel Logbook?

First and foremost, you should download the SARS eLogbook for the tax year, which starts on 1st March and ends on 28th February of the following year. Your 2022 – 23 SARS elogbook assessment must-have business travel details from 1st March to 28th February 2024. The tax filing season starts on 1st July 2024. 

You must first record your motor vehicle odometer reading on 1st March and record the odometer reading on 28 or 29 February, the last day of the tax year. The logbook has fields you should fill in related to your business travel. You can calculate your total kilometres for the tax year by subtracting opening kilometres from opening kilometres. 

When you fill out the SARS travel logbook, only include the kilometres covered when you travel for business. There are fields in the logbook where you enter your destination and kilometres travelled. Remember that you cannot claim the travel between your home and workplace for business purposes. 

You must have a separate logbook for each car if you have more than one vehicle used for business during a particular tax year. You must record the following details for every business trip in your SARS travel logbook.

• Date of travel 
• Business travel information (Starting point of the destination, places visited, and reasons for the business trip)  
• Kilometres travelled 

Make sure you keep your logbook for about five years from the date you submit your return because you may be asked to submit it to SARS to support your claim . 

Do You Have to Use SARS Logbook?

Without a travel logbook, you cannot claim any cost of business travel against the travel allowance allocated to you. In other words, without a logbook, you cannot claim for travel deduction. With a travel logbook, it becomes easier to calculate the amount you can travel. SARS can also use the logbook to verify your claim if the need arises. Therefore, you should retain your logbook with other material for five years from the submission date. 

How Does SARS Calculate Travel Allowance?

SARS uses two methods to calculate your travel allowance. The first method involves using a cost scale table supplied by SARS and found in the introduction section of your travel logbook.

The simplified way utilizes the fixed rate per kilometre, as illustrated in the table below. With this method, there should be no other advance, no allowance, or other compensation paid by the employer. 

SARS can also calculate your claim using actual costs incurred during your business travels. It is essential to keep a record of your expenses during the tax year on top of keeping a logbook. The expenses include repairs and maintenance, oil, fuel, insurance, car license, finance charges, wear-and-tear, and lease costs. 

If the employer provides a fixed allowance to the employee for business travel, the amount will appear under code 3701 on the IRP5. If a petrol card is issued, the money used for fuel will be added to the total amount. 

A valid log book with all the necessary information about business trips covered must be maintained to support your claim. If some of the relevant details are missing, SARS may dismiss the logbook, which may lead to additional assessment.

To succeed in your claim for business travel costs, you should take the following measures: 

• Ensure your opening kilometres on the odometer matches the previous year’s closing kilometre. Any mismatch can lead to the dismissal of your claim by SARS. If you have a good reason for the mismatch, ensure you write a letter to SARS. 
• Check the correctness of the kilometres covered during private and business travel. If there is an error, SARS may decline your claim. 
• The car’s service history must correspond with your logbook, or else your claim is dismissed. 
• Ensure that you provide reasonable private and business kilometres to get the best result. If your claim is biased toward business travel, your claim can be rejected. There is no way you can use your vehicle for private business. For instance, the distance from your home to your workstation is private, not a business. 

Therefore, keeping an accurate travel logbook is a good idea to make it easier for SARS to calculate your travel allowance.   

What Is the SARS Rate per Kilometre?

The tables published in the government gazette and SARS’s travel logbooks are used to determine the allowable rate per kilometre for business travel deductions. If the employer pays no other compensation to the employee, the rate is 418 cents or R4.18 per kilometre. 

If the reimbursed travel costs exceed the prescribed rate of R4.18 per kilometre, the full amount will be subject to PAYE. With fixed travel insurance, only 80% of the travel allowance will be subject to PAYE. If the employee has not met the full cost of fuel used in the car or maintenance costs, no claim can be made against these two. 

If you use your private vehicle for business purposes, you are eligible to claim a travel allowance. You must keep an accurate travel logbook to make it easier for SARS to calculate and process your claim. Without a travel logbook, your claim will be rejected.  

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Taxation Made Easy by Nyasha Musviba

Travel e-log book- SARS Logbook used to claim a deduction on personaltax

When can you claim for travel, what do i need to do.

Firstly, record your motor vehicles odometer reading on 1 March, i.e. on the first day of a tax year.

Secondly, make sure that you keep a logbook throughout the year. Note that it is not necessary to record details of private travel. You may make use of the SARS eLogbook, simply download the:

• 2019/20 logbook for the 1 March 2019 – 29 February 2020 assessment year and tax season starting 1 Jul 2020
• 2018/19 logbook for the 1 March 2018 – 28 February 2019 assessment year and tax season starting 1 Jul 2019
• 2017/18 logbook for the 1 March 2017 – 28 February 2018 assessment year and tax season starting 1 Jul 2018
• 2016/17 logbook for the 1 March 2016 – 28 February 2017 assessment year and tax season starting 1 Jul 2017
• 2015/16 logbook for the 1 March 2015 29 February 2016 assessment year and tax season starting 1 Jul 2016
• 2014/15 logbook for the 1 March 2014 28 February 2015 assessment year and tax season starting 1 Jul 2015

Top Tip: Without a logbook you wont be able to claim the cost of business travel against your travel allowance.

Thirdly, record your motor vehicles closing odometer reading on the last day of February (28/29) of the next year, i.e. on the last day of the applicable tax year.

Fourthly, calculate your total kilometres for the full year (closing kilometres less opening kilometres).

Fifthly, calculate your total business kilometres for the year (sum of all business kilometres).

What do I record in my logbook?

• The date of travel
• The kilometres travelled
• Business travel details (where you started your trip, where you went and the reason for the trip)

How do I work out how much I can claim?

• Calculate your claim based on the cost scale table which SARS supplies (youll find this table in the introduction section to the travel eLogbook)
• Calculate your claim based on actual costs. To do this, you’ll have to keep an accurate record of all your expenses during the year, in addition to keeping a log book. These expenses include fuel, oil, repairs and maintenance, car licence, insurance, wear-and-tear and finance charges or lease costs.
• 80% of the travelling allowance must be included in the employees remuneration for the purposes of calculating PAYE. The percentage is reduced to 20% if the employer is satisfied that at least 80% of the use of the motor vehicle for the tax year will be for business purposes.
• No fuel cost may be claimed if the employee has not borne the full cost of fuel used in the vehicle and no maintenance cost may be claimed if the employee has not borne the full cost of maintaining the vehicle (e.g. if the vehicle is covered by a maintenance plan).
• The fixed cost must be reduced on a pro-rata basis if the vehicle is used for business purposes for less than a full year. The actual distance travelled during a tax year and the distance travelled for business purposes substantiated by a log book are used to determine the costs which may be claimed against a travelling allowance.

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SARS Travel eLogbook 2023/24

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• 05 April 2023
• South African Accounting Academy

This handy document sets out how a taxpayer should go about calculating a travel deduction if they are in receipt of a travel allowance.

Without a logbook, a taxpayer will not be able to claim a travel deduction.

It is now compulsory to keep a logbook of all travel in which the taxpayer records their business kilometres if you want to claim a travel deduction.

The logbook must contain the following minimum information relating to your business travel:

• Date of travel
• Kilometres travelled
• Travel details (where to and reason for the trip)

Click here to download the Travel eLogbook:

https://www.sars.gov.za/wp-content/uploads/Docs/Logbook/2023-24-SARS-eLogbook.pdf

Relevance to Auditors, Independent Reviewers & Accountants:

• The Income Tax Act is yet another piece of legislation that your clients must comply with, and which you must assess compliance with.  If they don’t comply with the relevant laws and regulations, you have certain reporting obligations in terms of NOCLAR (NOn-Compliance with Laws And Regulations) – this could include reporting to management, qualifying your audit opinion, reporting a Reportable Irregularity, etc.
• As an auditor, independent reviewer or accoutant, you need to consider the latest publications and tools that have been issued by Regulatory bodies, e.g. SARS.
• As a tax practitioner, you need to advise your clients on the latest publications available from SARS to facilitate any travel deduction.
• As a taxpayer who receives a travel allowance, you also need to keep a logbook which records your business travel in order to claim the relevant deduction at the end of the tax year.

Relevance to Your clients:

• As a taxpayer who receives a travel allowance, your clients need to keep a logbook which records their business travel in order to claim the relevant deduction at the end of the tax year.

To stay current with all the latest changes and updates subscribe to our Monthly Compliance and Legislative Update series for R 250.00 per month. This gives you access to a monthly 2-hour webinar and monthly newsletter: https://accountingacademy.co.za/profession/monthly-legislation-update

Get all your CPD online. SA Accounting Academy (SAAA) offers Subscription Plans, Live Webinars, Webinars On-Demand, Access to Experts, Courses, Articles and more: https://cpd.accountingacademy.co.za .

The SA Accounting Academy (SAAA) Technical Resource Centre is constantly updated by our team of experts to help you stay compliant and informed. The Technical Resource Centre service is free for all SAAA Designation CPD subscriber members to use.

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• New 2 COLUMNS

Capture detailed business travel records automatically with affordable GPS Log Book devices

Keep track of dates, kilometres travelled, and other business travel details effortlessly with GPS Log Book

Calculate your estimated SARS travel claim now

How does GPS Log Book work?

GPS Log Book takes the hassle out of keeping an accurate, detailed and SARS-compliant logbook by allowing you to effortlessly manage your trips.

Select Your Device

Choose between our Classic and Live devices to start capturing key tax claim information automatically, such as dates, times, and kilometres traveled on your business trips.

Conveniently and quickly register your new tracking device online. If you are using the GPS Classic device, you will also need to install our Sync Application, which is used to sync your trip data from the device to the GPS Log Book web interface. The LIVE device uploads data automatically.

Stress-free installation, no wires required! Our Classic device plugs into your vehicle using the Cigarette lighter socket. The Live device plugs into your vehicle’s OBDII port, which is located right under your dashboard.

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Submit your fully compliant travel reports to SARS to claim your deduction. All travel data is securely stored in the cloud for easy access.

Who is GPS Log Book for?

Since 2011, any person who receives a travel allowance is required to present a logbook to the South African Revenue Service (SARS) before any travel tax claim can be processed.

Whether you’re self-employed, a small business owner or corporate employee, tracking your travel and fuel expenses is important for business and tax purposes.

Personal Use

If you receive a travel allowance from an employer or principal, you can claim a deduction on the assessment of your annual income tax return for the use of a private motor vehicle for business purposes.

Ditch the pen and paper log books and start effortlessly monitoring all of the vehicles in your fleet with trip lists, tax business trip reports, tax summary reports, and much more.

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Business Travel Claim

Tax Business Trip Report

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How much can you claim?

Select your vehicle cost, annual distance travelled, business percentage, 38 % (9707 km), estimated claim amount, r 20 404.00.

* The rebate amount is based on a sample of 432 tracked drivers who logged at least 50 business trips in the 2020/2021 tax year. The sample of drivers drove a total on average of 24 872kms in the tax year with 8565kms of these kilometres being driven for business purposes (34%). It was estimated that the average vehicle value was R80 000. Only estimated, based on 2020/2021 SARS tables. Click HERE for T&Cs.

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FAQs: Travel expenses and Tax

Travel expenses and their tax impact are a complex issue for many. It’s no surprise that it’s a common theme on our  Helpdesk . We’ve selected some frequently asked questions to help you navigate this issue when completing your tax return.

1. When can I claim travel expenses?      

You are only able to claim travel expenses as a tax deduction if you travelled for business related reasons AND kept a valid logbook AND you fit into one of these categories:

- You received a travel allowance ( source code 3701 or 3702 on your IRP5 ) or,

-You have a company provided vehicle (source code 3802 or 3816 on your IRP5) or,

- You are a commission earner, independent contractor or sole proprietor. 2. My employer reimbursed my travel expenses using the SARS prescribed rate per km. Can I claim my actual travel expenses on the ITR12 if I kept a logbook?

No you cannot claim a travel deduction because the reimbursement you received is not taxable and any expense you incurred while traveling should have been refunded to you by your employer. The source code on the IRP5 would be 3703 and this won’t allow you to complete the travel section on your return.             

3. How detailed is my logbook supposed to be?

The logbook should contain a detailed record of your business mileage for the tax year . It must include opening odometer and closing odometer reading and full details of business mileage and private mileage for each trip i.e date, starting point, destination, kms, reason for trip.

4. Do I need to submit my logbook ?         

You need to submit your logbook should SARS request it. If they don’t request it as soon as you’ve filed your return, you need to retain it for 5 years from the date you received your assessment as SARS is allowed to request your documents any time during this period.

5. What is an employer-provided vehicle?

It’s a vehicle that’s owned by the employer but the employee is allowed to use the vehicle for business and some cases, private purposes. Some companies only allow their employees to use the vehicle for business travel, whilst others allow the employee to take it home and use it for personal travel as well.          6. How is the fringe benefit calculated on a company car?

The monthly fringe benefit is calculated by taking the cost of your car multiplied by 3.25% (if there is a maintenance plan in place) or 3.5% (with no maintenance plan). The cost of the car must include VAT but exclude finance charges.                                            7. How can the taxable fringe benefit for employer-provided vehicles be reduced?

The taxable fringe benefit for employer-provided vehicles can be reduced by the portion of the license fees, insurance, fuel and maintenance expenses that are directly incurred and that relate to actual private kilometres travelled in that year. This deduction can only be claimed when you submit your tax return. Unfortunately your employer is not allowed to process the deduction on the payroll. Should your employer pay you an allowance in respect of these expenses, you may still be entitled to the deduction; however the allowance would be taxable.

8. I am a sole proprietor - how do I work out my travel deduction?

A Sole Proprietor uses their own vehicle for both business and private travel, however only the portion of total motor vehicle expenses relating to business use will be deductible. You must submit a detailed travel logbook and calculation (which shows how you worked out your travel deduction) in order to claim the travel expense.

Let’s look at an example of how to work out your business travel claim assuming you drive for business and private purposes.

Total km travelled = 14 500km

Business km = 10 000km

Total motor vehicle expenses = R27 500 (fuel R15 000, maintenance and repairs  R1 500,  insurance/licence R5 000, finance charges R6 000).

Business travel claim (actual costs method):

Business km to be claimed = 27 500 * 10 000 km / 14 500 km = R 18,965.52 9. I receive a travel allowance from my employer. I know I cannot claim travel from my home to my office. However, sometimes I drive directly from my home to the client. How do I calculate my business mileage in this situation?

In this situation you would deduct the distance from your home to the office from the total distance driven to the client.

For example, assume distance from home to office is 10km and distance from home to client is 30km. The business distance would be 20km (30km – 10km).

10. I receive a travel allowance and SARS has requested my documents for verification. The car I drive for work is in my husband’s name. What do I do?

You can claim a travel deduction even though the car does not belong to you provided you are paying for the vehicle running costs and can prove this to SARS.

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“The devil is in the details”

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What is a compliant logbook?

The SARS minimum requirements are:      >    Date of Travel      >    Kilometeres Travelled      >    Business travel details (where to and  reason for the trip)      >    Opening and Closing Odometer  

The above minimum requirement from SARS are really basic logbook data but they have issued an Interpretation Note 14 (Issue 5) dated 30 March 2021 that outline more details required in terms of the Reason for each trip.

SARS Interpretation Note 14 (Issue 5) – 30 March 2021

SARS now require much more detail for Reasons – extract from Interpretation Note 14, page 15

The “reason for trip” is a crucial element of a logbook. SARS will not be in a position to fulfil its obligation under the law to test the validity of a travel claim where the “reason for trip” is recorded in a logbook as simply “meeting”, “client”, “business” or similar vague particulars. 

The information that taxpayers provide under “reason for trip” must therefore be sufficient to allow SARS to verify that the travel undertaken was for business purposes and qualifies for a deduction. At the very least, this should include the following information:

Specific details of why the travel was undertaken, for example “presentation to board”, “meeting with supplier” or “delivery to client”.

Details of the person with or for whom the engagement was undertaken, for example, “head office of ABC Ltd”, “Mr A at LMN Supplies (Pty) Ltd” or “delivery to client Mr Z”.If contact details are available these should also be provided.

As much detail should be provided as possible. In many cases, this will permit SARS to verify travel claims without having to request additional information from a taxpayer or to disallow travel claims because of insufficient information that was provided to verify such claims. 

The information required to be provided under “reason for trip” is not confidential information. In the same way that taxpayers claiming a deduction for expenditure incurred under, for example, section 11( a ) could be required to provide relevant information such as client invoices, client contracts, etc., so too should taxpayers provide full details of business travel to SARS should they wish to claim a travel deduction. It bears pointing out that SARS is bound by the confidentiality provisions of Chapter 6 of the TA Act.

Elogger Logbook Format in Excel

Elogger provides accurate logbook data including Date, Distance (Business or Private). The mode is changed using the Mode Button.

We also added Actual Street Addresses. The Start Destination is the End destination of the previous trip.

Our Logbook Converter

Our free management tool for elogger clients to help you to allocate names and reasons for each trip.

Your downloaded logbook data is shown including the vehicle details as specified under Your Details. As helper columns we include the Trip count at the specific 1km radius, indicator if it is the first occurence and the day of the week.

Do you want to keep all the trips or some of them in the original mode. Simply type Yes in column P and copy, paste in the applicable rows. Your Final mode will then be the same as what you downloaded.

Allocate Home, Office, Client details or Private in column Q. This will alter the Suggested mode accordingly. Very important that no space before or after the name and the first letter as capital.

Your Private Trip Conditions as selected in Your Details will suggest the mode for :

 > Public Holidays  > Weekends  > Travel From Home to Office etc

Watch the short video on the Logbook Conversion process

Convert your logbook data using trip conditions

Send us an email to download the Logbook Converter Excel file

Logbook Converter V1.03

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Travel eLogbook 2022-2023

Login to my account, quick registration.

• (1) Negotiating Tax Debt and Payment Arrangements with SARS
• (11) Accounting
• (2) Accounting for Income Tax
• (7) Administration of Estates
• (1) Application of tax rates, s6(2) rebates
• (1) Assessed losses
• (3) Audit, Reviews & Other Services
• (8) Capital Gains Tax
• (1) Capital Gains Tax - Individuals Tax
• (1) Capital Gains Tax Implications of Trusts
• (2) Case study: Home office expense
• (1) Case study: Travel allowances
• (1) Company Formations
• (116) Corporate Tax
• (9) Customs and Excise
• (2) Deceased Estate
• (1) Deductions Pre-trade and prepaid expenses
• (1) Deferred tax assets and deferred tax on equity
• (1) Deregistration
• (2) Employer and Employee (PAYE and UIF Specific)
• (1) Estate Duty
• (5) Faculty News
• (2) Farming
• (141) Individuals Tax
• (1) Input - Customs Duty
• (3) Interest
• (13) International Tax
• (17) Legislation
• (1) Low interest rate loans and loan subsidies
• (1) Miscellaneous
• (1) Nature of the rights of beneficiaries
• (1) Notional input tax
• (8) Payroll
• (2) Practical Payroll
• (2) Provisional tax (Link with other Taxes)
• (1) SARS Dispute Resolution
• (4) SARS Issues
• (1) Salaried Employees
• (126) Tax Administration
• (2) Tax Administration Part 2B: Resolving Problems with SARS using the Tax Ombud
• (1) Tax Administration Part 3B Dispute Resolution - Objection and appeal
• (2) Tax Update
• (2) Tax implications of loans to trusts
• (1) Tax residence
• (1) Tax returns and payments
• (1) Transfer-Pricing
• (1) Trust Income / Gain Allocations
• (1) Trust types and income allocations
• (3) VAT periods
• (1) Wear and tear allowances
• (1) Zero Rated
• 06 April 2022
• Individuals Tax

Click here to view the 2022-2023 eLogbook for the 1 March 2022 – 28 February 2023 assessment year and filing season starting 1 Jul 2023.

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Excel logbook for SARS

If you are looking to create an Excel logbook for SARS and you want it to include the dates for working days only, you can easily create it in Excel using the WORKDAY function. Using this function means you that you won’t need to enter every date and it can even take into account public holidays.

Below a video explanation from our YouTube channel (please remember to susbcribe)

The process itself is fairly easy. Open a new workbook and in cell A2 enter the start date e.g. 1 Jan 2014.

In cell C2 to C15 list the public holidays you want to take into account.

Now in Cell A3 type the following formulae

=WORKDAY(A2,1,$C$2:$C$15)

The formula above will start at 1 Jan 2014 and will show you the date of the next workday. This formula assumes that Saturday and Sunday are non work days and also assumes that the public holidays listed in C2 to C15 are non work days. To understand how it works watch the WORKDAY video clip

You can now copy the formula down as far as you want and it will show only the upcoming workdays. Then to make it even more useful, format the date to include the day of the week (click on the date cells, right click and click on FORMAT CELLS, click on CUSTOM and in the dialogue box type dd mmm yyyy dddd)

If you work in an industry where Saturday and/ or Sundays could be work days e.g. a restaurant and you want for example a Monday to be treated as a ‘weekend’ then you need to make use of the WORKDAY.INTL function. All it asks for is an additional option of what is considered a weekend.

So the syntax as shown below is exactly the same except for the Weekend option

WORKDAY.INTL(Start Date, Days, [Weekend] ,[Holidays])

For the Weekend option you can enter a number from 1 to 17 which tells Excel what to consider a weekend i.e.

• 1 or omitted = Saturday, Sunday
• 2 = Sunday, Monday
• 3 = Monday, Tuesday
• 4 = Tuesday, Wednesday
• 5 = Wednesday, Thursday
• 6 = Thursday, Friday
• 7 = Friday, Saturday
• 11 = Sunday only
• 12 = Monday only
• 13 = Tuesday only
• 14 = Wednesday only
• 15 = Thursday only
• 16 = Friday only
• 17 = Saturday only

SARS Excel Logbook Download

Want to learn more about Microsoft Excel and creating a logbook yourself? If you prefer attending a course and live in South Africa look at the Johannesburg  MS Excel 3 Day Advanced Course   or the Cape Town  MS Excel 3 Day Advanced training course. If you prefer online learning or live outside South Africa, look at our  online MS Excel training courses .

Download the Free Excel Logbook from SARS here.

South Africa VAT Calculator for the move from 14% to 15%

Extra MS Excel Tip

Did you know that you can copy/ paste a section of Excel into Word WITHOUT still seeing the gridlines, filter buttons and more!

Watch how to Remove gridlines from Excel paste as picture (opens in a new tab) on our YouTube channel (don’t forget to subscribe).

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