If you haven't already submitted your tax return, you only have until Friday, July 27, to do so.
If you aren't going to make it, you need to ask the South African Revenue Service (SARS) for an extension. Apply via SARS Online or at your local Receiver of Revenue offices.
Some readers have complained about difficulties in contacting their local tax offices by telephone. SARS says it cannot provide alternative numbers, because it would be inundated with calls, but it is upgrading all its telephone systems.
SARS has also responded to some of the questions which arose from the D-I-Y tax return series published in Personal Finance last month.
* E Ablett asked: If an employer pays a portion of your contribution to your medical scheme, is the amount added to your taxable income or is the amount taxed separately?
SARS says medical fund contributions paid by an employer on behalf of an employee are considered a taxable fringe benefit and form part of gross income.
* AW Jones asked: What expenses, other than medical costs, can be claimed by the parents or guardians of mentally handicapped dependants who receive a monthly disability grant and who live in homes which fall under the Mental Health Act?
SARS says any expenditure necessarily incurred and paid by a taxpayer in consequence of any physical disability suffered by the taxpayer, his spouse or child or stepchild, will be considered for a deduction.
* GW van der Veen asked: Do people whose incomes consist of pensions, interest on investments and savings accounts have to hand in provisional tax forms?
SARS says you do not need to register for provisional tax purposes if you are 65 and older and your annual taxable income consists exclusively of remuneration, interest, dividends or rent from the lease of fixed property and does not exceed R80 000 a year.
If you are under the age of 65, you must register for provisional tax if your taxable non-employment income (that is the income you earn over and above the exempt R3 000) is more than R2 000 a year.
And in response to Van der Veen's request for a special tax return for pensioners, SARS said it is investigating simplifying the returns.