Your Details

Select the year of assessment (1 March – 28/29 February).
Section 23(m) restricts employees whose remuneration is not mainly commission. Commission earners and the self-employed are not restricted.

More than half your pay is salary — section 23(m) applies.

Section 23(b) requires all of these. Fail any one and no deduction is allowed at all.
The actual measured area of the room. SARS does not accept estimates.
m²
Every building on the property — the house plus garage, workers' quarters, outbuildings. NOT the erf size, and not the house alone.
m²

Apportionment ratio: 10.0%

Used to work out the tax you save at your marginal rate.
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Age determines the secondary (65+) and tertiary (75+) rebates.

Annual Costs

Enter the full-year cost for the whole property — we apply the floor-area apportionment for you.

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Interest on a bond used to acquire the home is deductible under section 24J, so section 23(m) prohibits it for salaried employees from the 2023 year of assessment onwards.
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Prohibited by section 23(m) for salaried employees.

Rates and taxes plus other municipal service charges such as sewerage and refuse.
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Repairs under section 11(d) — restoring the premises, not improving them. Repairs to your computer do not qualify.
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Only insurance of the building itself. Household contents insurance and bond (life) cover do not qualify.
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Ongoing security costs for the premises. Capital costs such as installing a new system do not qualify.
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Not an expense 'in connection with the premises', so section 23(m) prohibits it for salaried employees. Claimed in full — not apportioned — by everyone else.
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Prohibited by section 23(m) for salaried employees.

The section 11(e) allowance on your computer, desk and chair. Section 23(m)(ii) allows this for everyone. Not floor-area apportioned.
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Estimates only — not tax advice. Based on SARS Interpretation Note 28 (Issue 3). Sectional title levies need to be split between your own section and the common property before they can be claimed, and solar, generator and inverter costs are treated separately under section 12B — neither is modelled here. SARS requires actual measurements of floor area and will not accept an estimate. Consult a registered tax professional for your personal situation.

Tax You Save

R 3 863

From a deduction of R 10 730 as a Salaried employee.

Deduction

R 10 730

Disallowed

R 13 500

Office Share

10.0%

2027 (Mar 2026 – Feb 2027)Salaried employee

Allowed vs Disallowed

After floor-area apportionment.

Detailed Calculation

Rates, taxes & municipal charges × 10.0%R 1 250
Electricity × 10.0%R 1 800
Repairs to the premises × 10.0%R 1 000
Building insurance × 10.0%R 600
Security × 10.0%R 480
Premises costs allowedR 5 130
Wear & tear (section 11(e))R 5 600
Total DeductionR 10 730

Disallowed by section 23(m)

Bond interest × 10.0%R 4 500
Phone, internet & stationeryR 9 000
Tax SavedR 3 863
Worth 36.0% of the deduction — your marginal rate.

Four SARS Rules That Catch People Out

The denominator is every building, not just the house.

SARS apportions on the floor area of all buildings on the property — house, garage, outbuildings, workers' quarters. Leaving the garage out inflates your claim. The erf size is irrelevant.

Salaried employees lost the bond interest in 2022.

Bond interest is deductible under section 24J rather than section 11(a), so it falls outside the section 23(m)(iv) exclusion and is prohibited — for years of assessment commencing on or after 1 March 2022. Commission earners and the self-employed keep it.

No second apportionment for time.

Once you have applied the floor-area ratio you claim the whole amount. Working from the office three days out of five does not cut your claim to three fifths — but the room must still be exclusively a work room on the other two.

It follows you to the sale of the house.

The home-office share becomes "tainted" and loses the R2 million primary-residence exclusion, apportioned over the years you used it that way. For a modest deduction now, weigh the capital gain later.