Travel allowance and commission

[QRS]

Hi

A taxpayer receives a basic salary, commission, and and travel allowance.

For ease lets say the Basic is R 50 000
Commission is R 150 000
And the Travel Allowance R 50 000

Note that the commission is more than 50% of the taxpayer's total income, and expenditure can be claimed in terms of section 11(a).

How does the travel deduction work?

If we claim the travel against the travel allowance, and the deduction calculated is let's say R 60 000. The deduction is then limited to the R 50 000 Travel allowance received. Can we then claim the remaining R 10 000 against the commission as per section 11(a)?

or

Do we just claim all travel against commission as per section 11(a) and ignore the travel allowance?

Your assistance in this regard will be highly appreciated

[Nickolai Naydenov]

With the figures you've given I'd do 100 000 salary and 150 000 comm, so there won't be fringe benefit tax on the travel allowance and comm is still more than 50% so you can claim petrol, maintenance, depreciation and etc as the vehicle was used to produce the income.

[QRS]

Hi, thank you for the reply. However, the taxpayer has already received his IRP5 with the salary structure as stated in the query

[Nickolai Naydenov]

Then he can ask his company to restructure that, normally that is not an issue.