SARS Travel Logbook: How to Keep One and Claim Your Travel Deduction (2026/27)

If you receive a travel allowance or reimbursement and want to claim the business use of your car against it, one document decides whether SARS accepts the claim or throws it out: your logbook. No logbook, no deduction. It is the single most common reason a travel claim is disallowed on assessment, and it is also the easiest thing to get right once you know what SARS wants.

This guide covers who needs a logbook, what it has to record, how the two calculation methods work, and how to keep one without turning it into a monthly chore.

The essentials

• You can only claim a travel deduction if you keep a logbook. SARS does not accept estimates or "usual" mileage.
• The travel tax year runs from 1 March to the end of February. Record your odometer on both dates.
• For every business trip, log the date, where you went, the business reason, and the kilometres.
• Travel between your home and your usual place of work is private, not business.
• You then work out the claim one of two ways: the deemed-cost method (SARS rate tables) or the actual-cost method (your real running costs). Both need the logbook.
• The reimbursive rate for 1 March 2026 to 28 February 2027 is R4.95 per kilometre, up from R4.76.
• Keep the logbook and supporting records for five years.

Who needs a SARS travel logbook

You need a logbook if you use your own vehicle for business travel and want that travel to reduce your tax. In practice that means:

• You receive a travel allowance from an employer (it shows against code 3701 or 3702 on your IRP5).
• You are reimbursed per kilometre for business trips.
• You are a sole proprietor or independent contractor claiming vehicle running costs against your business income.

In all three cases the logbook is what converts kilometres into a number SARS will allow. Without it, the default is simple: the claim is nil. SARS is explicit that it will not accept a deduction based on an estimate of how far you "normally" drive.

What your logbook must record

A SARS-compliant logbook is not complicated, but it has to be complete. At the start of the tax year (1 March) write down your vehicle's opening odometer reading, and at the end (the last day of February) write down the closing odometer. The difference is your total kilometres for the year.

Then, for each business trip, record:

• the date of the trip,
• the starting point and destination (from where, to where),
• the reason for the trip (the client, the site, the delivery, the meeting),
• the kilometres travelled.

You do not have to log private trips individually. Your business kilometres are the total of your logged business trips; your private kilometres are everything else (total for the year minus business). One trip that catches people out: driving from home to your regular place of work is private travel, even though it feels like work. Only travel undertaken for business, such as visiting a client or a supplier, counts.

Keep the logbook, and any cost records that go with it, for five years in case SARS asks to verify the claim. A clear digital copy is fine.

The two ways to work out your claim

Once you have your business kilometres, there are two methods to turn them into a deduction. You choose the one that gives the better result; the logbook is required either way.

Deemed-cost method. SARS publishes an annual table that assigns a fixed cost, a fuel cost and a maintenance cost to each vehicle-value band. You apply the rates for your vehicle's value to your business kilometres. You do not need fuel or repair receipts for this method, only a valid logbook. It is the simpler route and works well if you would rather not keep every slip.

Actual-cost method. Here you claim the business portion of what the car costs you to run: fuel, maintenance and repairs, insurance, licence fees, and finance charges, plus wear-and-tear (the value of the vehicle written off over seven years). You add those up for the year, then apportion them by your business-use percentage from the logbook. If your business kilometres are 40% of your total, you claim 40% of the running costs. This method usually wins when the car is costly to run or you drive a lot for business, but it only holds up if you have kept the receipts behind every cost.

Travel allowance vs reimbursive travel

These two get mixed up, and they are taxed differently.

A travel allowance is a fixed amount your employer pays you towards travel, whether or not you drive. It is partly taxed up front (a portion is included in your monthly PAYE), and you claim the business-use deduction back when you file, using your logbook.

Reimbursive travel is paid per kilometre for actual business trips. For 1 March 2026 to 28 February 2027, reimbursement up to R4.95 per kilometre is tax-free (the rate rose from R4.76 the previous year). If your employer pays above that rate, or pays a rate per kilometre alongside a travel allowance, the excess becomes taxable and, again, your logbook is what supports the business portion.

Common mistakes that cost you the deduction

• No logbook, or a logbook reconstructed the night before filing. SARS looks for a contemporaneous record. Fill it in as you go, not from memory in July.
• Logging the home-to-office commute as business. That is private travel and will be stripped out.
• Claiming actual costs with no receipts. Without the fuel and maintenance slips, the actual-cost method collapses back to nothing. Capture them through the year.
• Forgetting the odometer readings. Miss the opening or closing reading and you cannot prove total kilometres, which undermines the business-use percentage.

How to keep a logbook without the admin

The logbook itself can be a notebook in the cupboard, a spreadsheet, or SARS's free eLogbook template. The two hard parts are doing it every day and having the cost records to back an actual-cost claim, and SparkReceipt covers both.

Its mileage tracker records each trip's date, route, distance and purpose by GPS as you drive, so the logbook builds itself instead of being reconstructed in July. And for the actual-cost method, snap or forward every fuel, service, insurance and licence slip and the receipt scanner reads the vendor, amount, date and VAT and files it, so the receipts behind the claim are captured and stored when you need them. Upload your card or bank statement and it pulls the running costs off it and matches each one to its slip. Log the kilometres, keep the costs, and the travel deduction is a five-minute job at filing time instead of a scramble.

This guide is general information, not tax advice. Rates and rules change, and your situation may differ. Confirm the current figures on the SARS website or with a registered tax practitioner before you file.