Travel allowance calculator and SARS logbook guide

What your logbook has to show

The logbook is your proof of how far you drove for work, and without it SARS allows no travel claim at all. You can use the free SARS eLogbook, a notebook or an app, as long as it records each of these for the car:

• The odometer reading on 1 March 2026, or on the day you started using the car for work, and the reading on 28 February 2027.
• For every business trip, the date, how far you drove, and where you started and finished.
• The reason for each business trip, with the name of the client, supplier or site you visited, because SARS turns down vague entries such as “meeting” or “client”.

Each car you use for work needs its own logbook. You can leave private trips and daily odometer readings out of it, because SARS treats every kilometre on the odometer that is not in your business total as private. Keep the logbook for five years after you submit the return, since SARS can ask for it when it checks a return. Our guide to what a SARS verification letter asks for shows how that request works.

The SARS cost table for 2026-27

SARS publishes this table each year so you can claim your work kilometres without keeping a slip for every cost. Find the row for what the car cost you, including VAT. The fixed cost is a yearly amount for owning the car, spread over every kilometre you drove, business and private. The more you drive, the less of that fixed cost falls on each kilometre.

Add the fuel figure only if you paid for all the fuel, and the maintenance figure only if you paid for all the maintenance, which rules it out for a car sold with a maintenance plan. For a car used for work for only part of the year, the fixed cost is cut in proportion to the days of work use out of 365.

Take a car that cost R400,000, driven 30,000 km in the year with 12,000 of them for work. It sits in the R345,001 to R460,000 row. Its fixed cost of R125,393 spread over 30,000 km comes to 417.98c a kilometre, and adding fuel and maintenance brings the rate to 665.38c. The claim is 12,000 km at that rate, which is R79,845.60.

The actual cost method uses what you really spent on the car. If you own it, you can also claim wear and tear, which is the car's price spread evenly over seven years to allow for the value it loses, and the interest on the car loan. From 1 March 2026 SARS caps the car cost for wear and tear, and the loan for interest, at R920,000, as its guide to the ITR12 tax return sets out. The bill that puts this limit into the Income Tax Act had not been confirmed as passed when these figures were checked on 27 September 2026.

• SARS: Government Notice 7182, the rate per kilometre table for 2026-27 (PDF)
• SARS: Rates per kilometre
• SARS: Comprehensive guide to the ITR12, section 10.5 on travel (PDF)
• SARS: Guide for employers in respect of allowances (PDF)
• SARS: Interpretation Note 14, allowances, advances and reimbursements (PDF)

Travel allowance and logbook questions

Is a travel allowance taxable in South Africa?

The whole allowance counts as taxable income until you claim back the cost of your business travel on your tax return, and that claim needs a logbook. During the year your employer takes PAYE on 80 percent of the allowance, or on 20 percent if it accepts that at least 80 percent of your driving is for work, and SARS settles the final amount when it assesses your return. Your claim can never be bigger than the allowance itself.

Should I use the SARS cost table or my actual costs?

Use the one that gives you the bigger claim, as long as you can back it up. The cost table only needs your logbook and what the car cost, while the actual cost method needs a slip or statement for every fuel fill, service, insurance premium and licence fee you count. Once you tick “Compare with my actual car costs” in the calculator and add your costs, it works out both methods and tells you which one leaves less of your allowance taxed.

Does driving from home to the office count as business travel?

SARS counts the drive between your home and your usual place of work as private, even if you make it every day, and those kilometres stay out of your business total. It is different when you work from home and your home is your place of business, because a trip from there to a client or supplier then counts as business travel.

What if my employer pays me a rate for each kilometre?

If your employer pays you only a rate for each business kilometre, and nothing else for the car apart from parking and tolls, up to R4.95 a kilometre is tax free for 2026-27. PAYE is taken on everything paid above that rate, and on your return you can still claim your business kilometres at the SARS cost table rate or at your actual costs against the whole payment, which can get you some of that tax back. If you get a per-kilometre payment and a fixed allowance for the same car, SARS adds the two together when it assesses your return, and you cannot use the R4.95 rate as your claim. This calculator works on a fixed allowance only, so its figures will be off if you are also paid for each kilometre.

What happens if I did not keep a logbook?

A return with no logbook gets no travel claim at all, so SARS taxes the whole allowance when it assesses the return. Your employer took PAYE on only 80 percent of the allowance during the year, or 20 percent if it accepted that at least 80 percent of your driving was for work, which usually leaves extra tax to pay after that assessment. To see how much, open “Part-year use, no logbook, or mostly work driving” in the form and untick the logbook box.

The extra tax on your allowance uses the same tax brackets as the rest of your income, and you can look them up in the SARS tax tables. For the monthly PAYE on your salary, line by line, use the PAYE calculator.

When many of your clients earn a travel allowance

A travel claim like this one depends on papers the client has to send, from the IRP5 that shows the allowance to the logbook behind the claim, and a practice filing ITR12 returns for many salaried clients waits on each client’s papers. C-Suite Individual follows up with every client who still owes filing-season documents, such as IRP5s and medical-aid or retirement annuity certificates, and matches what they send to the right return. In the free pilot it does this for a week on five clients you choose.

See how the pilot works