Explainer
SARS Travel Logbook: What to Record and What It Saves
What SARS needs in a travel logbook, the 2027 rate per km (495c) and cost scale, a worked claim on a R300 000 car, and what goes wrong without one.
If your employer pays you a travel allowance, most of it is taxed through PAYE during the year, and the only way to get that tax back for the kilometres you drove for work is a claim on assessment. SARS will only accept the claim with a logbook behind it.
The logbook is worth tens of thousands of rands a year to someone who drives for work, and it takes a minute a trip. Here is what SARS asks for, how the claim is worked out, and one worked example on a real car value.
What SARS needs you to record
SARS asks for five things over the tax year, which runs from 1 March to the last day of February. You do not have to record private trips, only business ones.
Your odometer on 1 March
The opening reading on the first day of the tax year.
Every business trip
The date, the kilometres, where you started, where you went and the reason for the trip.
Your odometer on the last day of February
The closing reading on the last day of the tax year.
Your total kilometres
Closing reading less opening reading: every kilometre the car did, private and business.
Your business kilometres
The sum of every business trip you recorded.
Keep a separate logbook for each car you use for business, and keep it for at least five years after you submit your return.
Driving from home to your usual place of work does not count. SARS treats it as private travel, so those kilometres stay out of the business total however far you live from the office. SARS also does not need daily odometer readings, only the opening and closing ones and the details of each business trip.
SARS publishes a free eLogbook for each tax year on its travel e-logbook page, including one for 1 March 2026 to 28 February 2027. A phone app works as well, as long as it records the same fields.
How the claim is worked out
First, the cost scale. SARS sets a fixed cost, a fuel cost and a maintenance cost by the value of your car. Your rate per kilometre is the fixed cost divided by all the kilometres the car did that year, plus the fuel cost if you paid for all your fuel, plus the maintenance cost if you paid for all the maintenance. Business kilometres times that rate is your deduction.
Second, actual costs. You add up everything the car cost you in the year, fuel, oil, repairs, licence, insurance, wear-and-tear and finance or lease costs, and claim the business share. It needs every receipt as well as the logbook.
Selected bands from SARS's schedule for years of assessment from 1 March 2026. Value includes VAT, excludes finance charges.
SARS cost scale, 2027 tax year
| Fixed cost a year | Fuel, per km | Maintenance, per km | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up to R115 000 | R38 344 | 132.9c | 49.1c |
| R115 000 to R230 000 | R68 487 | 148.4c | 61.4c |
| R230 000 to R345 000 | R98 689 | 161.2c | 67.8c |
| R345 000 to R460 000 | R125 393 | 173.4c | 74.0c |
| R460 000 to R575 000 | R152 097 | 185.5c | 86.9c |
From PAYE-GEN-01-G03-A01, Rate per Kilometre Schedule, 2027 tax year. The schedule continues to cars over R920 000.← scroll sideways on a narrow screen →
A more expensive car has a higher fixed cost, and the fixed cost is where most of the deduction comes from.
A worked example
Take a car bought for R300 000, driven 30 000 kilometres in the year, 15 000 of them on business, with the owner paying all fuel and maintenance.
The rate is R98 689 divided by 30 000 kilometres, R3.29, plus 161.2c for fuel and 67.8c for maintenance: about R5.58 a kilometre. Times 15 000 business kilometres, that is about R83 700 deducted from the travel allowance. Without the logbook, the deduction is nothing, and the allowance is taxed as though every kilometre were private.
The simpler rate, and what your employer withholds
Where your employer pays you per business kilometre and gives you no other allowance or reimbursement for the car apart from parking and tolls, SARS lets you use a flat rate instead: 495 cents a kilometre for the 2027 tax year. Up to that rate, the reimbursement is not taxed.
Where you get a monthly travel allowance, your employer includes 80% of it in your pay for PAYE, or 20% if it is satisfied that at least 80% of your use of the car is for business. The logbook is what lets you claim back the tax on the business share when you file.
Making the record easier to keep
A logbook kept on the day is accurate; one rebuilt in February from memory is where claims go wrong. Record each business trip when you park, in the eLogbook or an app, and photograph the odometer on 1 March and at the end of February.
If you claim actual costs, paying for fuel and services on a single card keeps every receipt in one statement. Our business credit cards ranking compares the banks' fuel and garage cards, from R17 a month.
Questions people actually ask
What must a SARS logbook include?
For every business trip: the date, the kilometres travelled, and where you started, where you went and why.Plus your odometer reading on 1 March and on the last day of February, your total kilometres for the year and your total business kilometres. Private trips need not be recorded.
What is the SARS rate per km for 2026/27?
For the 2027 tax year (1 March 2026 to 28 February 2027), the simplified rate is 495 cents a kilometre, available where the employer pays per business kilometre and gives no other allowance or reimbursement for the car apart from parking and tolls.Otherwise the rate is worked out from SARS's cost scale.
Can I claim travel between home and work?
No.SARS treats travel between your home and your usual place of work as private travel, so it cannot be claimed as business kilometres.
How long must I keep my logbook?
At least five years from the date you submit your tax return, because SARS may ask for it to support your claim.Can I claim a travel allowance without a logbook?
No.SARS will not accept a claim for business travel against a travel allowance without a logbook, so the allowance is taxed as though all travel were private.
