The Asset

The Annexure to Binding General Ruling 7 (Issue 4) lists the write-off periods SARS accepts. Pick the closest match, or choose 'Other' and enter your own expected useful life.

BGR 7 write-off period: 3 years — office, it & communications.

The cash cost of acquiring the asset, excluding finance charges, plus delivery and the direct cost of installation or erection.
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Paragraph (v) of the proviso to section 11(e): money spent moving the asset from one location to another is added to its value and written off over the remaining useful life. If the asset is already fully written off, moving costs are deducted in the year they are incurred.
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How You Use It

You may elect either method and you do not have to tell SARS when you change. Straight line writes the cost off in equal instalments; diminishing value calculates each year's allowance on the remaining income tax value, so it front-loads the deduction but never quite reaches zero.
BGR 7 paragraph 4.3.8 — the allowance is apportioned where the asset was not used for trade throughout the year of assessment, for example because you bought it partway through the year. This applies to both methods.
12 months
BGR 7 paragraph 4.3.7 — where an asset is used privately as well, the allowance must be apportioned, because the deduction is allowed only to the extent that the asset is used for trade. Keep a record of how you arrived at the split.
100% business · 0% private
Year 1 is the year you brought the asset into use. Step through the years to see each year's allowance and what is left to write off.
1 of 3

What It Saves You

Section 11(e) is not indexed — the write-off periods and the R7 000 small-item limit are the same in every year this calculator covers. The tax year is here for the record and for the rate you pick below.
Section 23(m) restricts what an employee may deduct against salary income — but it expressly leaves section 11(e) alone, so wear and tear survives for everyone.
The allowance is a deduction, so what it is worth in rands is the deduction multiplied by the rate your top rand of income is taxed at. Not sure? Use the Tax Bracket calculator.

This calculator provides estimates only and does not constitute tax advice. It models the ordinary section 11(e) allowance. Faster write-offs under other sections are not applied here — section 12E for a Small Business Corporation (see the Small Business Income Tax calculator), section 12B/12BA for renewable energy, section 12C for manufacturing plant, and section 13 for buildings. Recoupments on disposal (section 8(4)(a)), assets acquired by donation or inheritance, leased assets with a residual value, section 23A lessor limitations and foreign currency translation are all outside its scope. Consult a registered tax professional for your situation.

Wear & Tear Allowance — Year 1

R 8 000

R 24 000 written off over 3 years on the straight-line method.

Tax Saved

R 2 480

Claimed Over the Life

R 24 000

Total Tax Saved

R 7 440

2027 (Mar '26 – Feb '27)BGR 7 — 3 yearsStraight line
Yes — a salaried employee can claim this. Section 23(m) blocks almost every deduction against salary income, which is why the Home Office calculator has to disallow bond interest. But section 23(m)(ii) expressly carves out section 11(e), so the wear-and-tear allowance on the laptop, desk and chair you use for work survives. It is apportioned for private use, but it is not apportioned by the floor area of your home office — that restriction applies to premises costs, not to your assets.

Allowance by Year

Detailed Calculation

Cost of the assetR 24 000
Value for section 11(e)R 24 000
Write-off period3 years
Full annual allowance (cost ÷ life)R 8 000
Allowance for year 1R 8 000
Tax saved at 31%R 2 480
Left to write offR 16 000
Effective write-off this year: 33.3% of cost

Write-Off Schedule

income tax value, year by yearswipe the table sideways
YearOpening valueMonthsAllowanceClosing value
Year 1R 24 00012R 8 000R 16 000
Year 2R 16 00012R 8 000R 8 000
Year 3R 8 00012R 8 000R 0

How the wear-and-tear allowance works

The periods are not in the Act. Section 11(e) only says you may deduct the amount by which an asset's value has diminished through wear and tear. The actual write-off periods come from the Annexure to Binding General Ruling 7 (Issue 4) of 9 February 2021, and they apply to any asset brought into use on or after 24 March 2020. All 175 of them are in the dropdown, exactly as SARS published them.

You may go shorter, but you have to ask. An application to write an asset off faster than the Annexure must be fully motivated and lodged with your SARS branch office before you submit the return that claims it. The environment the asset works in and how hard it is used are the factors SARS will look at.

Cost means cash cost. Delivery and the direct cost of installation or erection go in; interest and finance charges stay out; and a VAT vendor who claimed the input tax must strip the VAT out under section 23C. Revaluing the asset changes nothing.

Two apportionments, and they stack. Part of a year of assessment (paragraph 4.3.8) and part private use (paragraph 4.3.7) are separate reductions, and both apply whichever method you use. Buying a computer in month 10 and using it 60% for work gives you three-twelfths of 60% of the annual allowance in year one.

Second-hand does not mean instant. SARS is explicit that an asset older than its Annexure period cannot simply be written off in the year you buy it — you write it off over the useful life it has left in your hands.