Mileage log requirements in South Africa

What your records have to contain to survive a check by SARS, and the rate DriveHub applies.

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Updated 18 Oct 2026

Country

The rate

R4.95 per km

In force from 1 March 2026 to 28 February 2027.

This is the tax-free ceiling for an employer's reimbursement per kilometre, when nothing else is paid for the car. A fixed travel allowance is deducted from SARS's cost table instead.

The rule that governs it

The travel eLogbook, reissued each tax year; required to substantiate a claim against a travel allowance.

What every trip has to record

Required per year

The odometer reading on 1 March and again on the last day of February following.

Required per business trip, verbatim from SARS's own 2025-26 eLogbook

"The logbook must contain the following minimum information relating to your business travel: • Date of travel • Kilometres travelled • Travel details (where to and reason for the trip)."

Prefer to keep it by hand? A blank log with these fields: CSV · PDF.

What form the records may take

Electronic logbooks are accepted. One logbook per vehicle where more than one was used in the year.

How long to keep them

Five years from submission of the return.

What it costs to get wrong

The deduction against the travel allowance. SARS's 2026/27 eLogbook: "Without a logbook, you will not be able to claim a travel deduction", and of the 1 March and end-February readings, "Without these readings, you cannot claim a tax deduction!" The allowance is taxable except to the extent that it "has actually been expended by that recipient … on travelling on business" (Income Tax Act s. 8(1)(a)(i)(aa)), and the taxpayer "bears the burden of proving … that an amount or item is deductible or may be set off" (Tax Administration Act 2011 s. 102(1)(b)). The eLogbook adds: "The South African Revenue Service reserves the right to audit and query the content or information recorded by the taxpayer in any logbook." On a company car, the reduction for business use exists only "Where accurate records of distances travelled for business purposes in such vehicle are kept" (Seventh Schedule para 7(7)), and the private-fuel reduction only where "accurate records of distances travelled for private purposes" are kept (para 7(8)). Beyond the claim, TAA 2011 s. 29 obliges the records to be kept, for five years from the return's submission (s. 29(3)(a)), and s. 234(2)(e) makes it an offence for a person who "wilfully or negligently fails to … retain records as required under a tax Act", "liable, upon conviction, to a fine or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years." The fixed-amount administrative penalty of s. 210 applies only to non-compliance "listed in a public notice issued by the Commissioner", and the incidences SARS lists for it are outstanding returns.

Where this comes from

The requirements above are quoted from SARS. DriveHub re-checks these, and the rate, against the authority's own pages; this page is built from that record.

DriveHub records this automatically. It tracks each drive in the background and keeps the start and end, the distance and the route. Tracking and the missing-drive check are free; the report in the shape a tax office expects is part of DriveHub Pro.