Retirement annuity contributions
You can deduct up to 27,5% of your taxable earnings on contributions to retirement funding. So if you have a pension fund and you contribute 15% towards it you can invest in a retirement annuity with a further 7,5%.This can be done with a lump sum adding it to your existing retirement annuity. It has to be invested before the 28th February to qualify for a deduction in the 2019 tax year. The benefit is a tax deduction on your premium at your marginal tax rate. So if you are paying tax at a rate of say 40% then you effectively get 40 cents back for every rand you invest in a retirement annuity.
Tax free savings account
You should consider the opportunity of investing a lump sum into a tax free savings account before the tax year end. You are currently allowed R33 300 per annum. So you can top up to this amount before the end of February taking full advantage of the allowance and then be in a position to invest more in the next tax year from March onwards. The main advantage of this investment is that your funds are not taxed which substantially improves the performance over time.
Capital gains tax
If you are considering selling some of your investments you can do so in February and get the R40 000 exclusion off the gain then sell again in March with another R40 000 exclusion.
Donation tax
If you are considering donating assets in excess of R200 000 to someone other than your spouse you may want to split the donation between February and March. This way you will take full advantage of the R100 000 per annum allowed per taxpayer for 2019 and 2019 tax years.
Planning opportunities exist in the month of February for the tax savvy. Work with the various tax breaks and take full advantage while you can.