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Momentum teams up with TaxTim as 2016 tax season starts

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 01 Jul 2016
TaxTim was founded by Evan Robinson, an inventor and programmer, and Marc Sevitz, a chartered accountant specialising in tax.
TaxTim was founded by Evan Robinson, an inventor and programmer, and Marc Sevitz, a chartered accountant specialising in tax.

Insurance company Momentum will be offering members of its rewards programme, Multiply, up to 40% off digital tax assistant, TaxTim.

The announcement coincides with the start of South Africa's tax season today.

TaxTim aims to assist in making the tax submission process easier, simplifying the tax return and helping users get the maximum rebate possible.

According to the Momentum/Unisa Household Wealth Report (Q4 2015), SA households are paying higher taxes than ever before.

The insurance company believes one way consumers can reduce financial pressure was to figure out what the minimum was they had to pay to the South African Revenue Services (SARS).

"One area where consumers can unlock financial benefit is by becoming more efficient in the unavoidable filing of tax returns - and in the claiming back of taxes paid," Momentum said in a statement.

From today, Multiply members can get discounts of between 25% and 40% off TaxTim packages.

Plain-language tax return

TaxTim has three tax return options - Lite, Smart and Ultra, for those with a basic salary, to freelancers, commission earners, independent contractors or sole proprietors. TaxTim packages start at R249.

The digital tax assistant initiates a 'conversation' with users online and asks them simple prompts like, "Please enter the amount spent on your medical contributions now," followed by, "Did you or your employer pay for the medical aid contributions?"

By removing jargon and using plain-language, TaxTim simplifies the process and prevents users from getting confused or entering incorrect data, which could lead to a deflated tax return.

TaxTim integrates directly with SARS eFiling, which means that, once authorised, TaxTim can import user's IRP5 data and submit the completed return directly to SARS.

The service cannot guarantee refunds, but has said more than 70% of users who were due refunds, received more than R1 000 back.

Inventor and accountant team

TaxTim was founded by Evan Robinson, an inventor and programmer, and Marc Sevitz, a chartered accountant specialising in tax. They initially pitched their idea to the Google Umbono incubator and were awarded mentorship, office space and limited funding by the programme.

Earlier this year, Tax Tim secured a fresh wave of investment from MMI Holdings' innovation unit Exponential. Momentum is part of MMI Holdings, hence the Multiply discounts and connection.

Sevitz said, "We are very happy that MMI has come on board with additional investment, and equally happy that we are able to offer our services to Multiply and Momentum. For now the MMI discounts apply to Multiply members only, however we anticipate a rollout for all MMI (Momentum and Metropolitan) clients in the future."

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