Hello there!

I'm self-employed (individual without any entity) and I'm still in progress of acquiring a property for rental income (additional income). I paid a deposit of R 60,000 (before income tax) one year ago and paid R 180,000 (before income tax) again a few months later. I took R 360,000 in bond (still pending for title registration from deeds office and it will be in my own name). I'm aware that I can claim rates, levies, maintenance (to its original state only), interests paid on bond and insurance as deductions but I'm wondering what the capital allowance is. I heard we can claim down payments as capital allowance should we still wait for the acquisition to complete (been waiting for 1 year already). Am I correct?

Should I rather keep the property separate to what I'm doing for living i.e. using taxed income instead of using pre-tax income to acquire the property for rental income? From my understanding, should I not fill in the above-mentioned amounts as capital allowance then the non-bond capital will not be taken into account and I would still need pay for the income generated, including the amounts used as down payments, anyway.

Thanks!