Local firm takes the paperwork out of keeping a vehicle logbook

3/21/2009 12:00:00 AM

Soon all employees who claim mileage travelled in a private vehicle for work purposes against a travel allowance will have to keep a logbook to record their business trips.

Soon all employees who claim mileage travelled in a private vehicle for work purposes against a travel allowance will have to keep a logbook to record their business trips. Now a local company is making it a whole lot easier to keep a logbook .

Mobile Gateway Solutions has developed mobiletripsheet, an electronic logbook that allows you to record your business trips on your cellphone and then upload the information to the internet.

John Ramsey, the company's marketing director, says you can record your business trips in a few words on your phone and this information will then update your online profile. You can access your profile on the internet whenever you need it and make any necessary changes there.

The online record of your trips can be useful if you need to submit a monthly record of your mileage, but, most importantly, at the end of the tax year your mileage claim against your travel allowance is readily available.

The electronic logbook is available to Vodacom subscribers for R8.55 a month or it can be bought online from www.tripsheet.co.za for R299 (including VAT) for 24 months.

To load mobiletripsheet on to your phone, you need to download a link that is sent to you via SMS after you buy your subscription. You then fill in a registration form, key in your licence code and you are up and running.

Actual mileage required
From March next year, you won't be able to claim against a travel allowance unless you have a record of the actual mileage you travelled in your own vehicle for business purposes.

Currently, you can make use of a deemed mileage to claim against your allowance, but you need to have travelled at least 18 000 kilometres for the year.

If you make use of the deemed mileage, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) regards the first 18 000 kilometres you travel in the tax year to be travel for private purposes, which cannot be claimed against your allowance.

Any mileage you do beyond 18 000 kilometres up to 32 000 kilometres can be claimed against your travel allowance as business mileage in terms of the deemed mileage system.

Already, if you don't travel more than 18 000 kilometres for private purposes or travel more than 18 000 kilometres for business purposes, you should be using a logbook to record your actual mileage and using this figure to calculate the claim against your allowances.

Ramsey says a person who travels 29 000 kilometres a year, of which 19 000 is for business purposes, will be limited to claiming for only 11 000 kilometres under the deemed mileage system.

Using actual mileage, a car allowance of R5 000 a month and the deemed expenses on a vehicle valued at R195 000, the difference in the claim allowed is R24 868.

That's R24 868 more on which you could pay tax because you didn't keep a logbook.

Keeping a logbook may also be useful if your employer reimburses you for using your own vehicle for business travel.

Employers can use mobiletripsheet in conjunction with another program, fleetcontroller, to manage the activities of sales or technical staff on the road.

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Laura du Preez