Expense tracking for Uber and Bolt drivers in South Africa

If you drive for Uber, Bolt, or InDriver in South Africa, you are a self-employed contractor in SARS's eyes. You earn taxable income from your trips and you owe income tax on the profit, not the gross. The difference between gross and profit is the legitimate operating expenses you can claim.

Most drivers leave 30 to 40% of their deductions on the table because they don't track the receipts, don't understand the categories, or fail the logbook rule. This is the field guide for getting that money back.

The standard caveat: this is general guidance, not advice. Tax for self-employed drivers has specific quirks. Before submitting a return, talk to a tax practitioner. The SAICA-registered ones who specialise in gig economy tax are not expensive and they know exactly what passes audit and what doesn't.

You are a provisional taxpayer

The first thing to understand: as a self-employed driver, you are a provisional taxpayer under SARS rules. That means:

• You estimate your taxable income for the year
• You pay provisional tax twice a year (end of August, end of February)
• You submit your annual return like everyone else, and SARS reconciles
• If you under-estimated, there are penalties; if you over-paid, you get a refund

Most drivers don't know they are provisional taxpayers until SARS sends them a notice. By then there are penalties stacking up. Register and pay on time.

Useful PAYE-aware drivers: if you have a day job that already taxes you and you drive on the side, the side income is provisional. Your day-job PAYE doesn't cover it.

What you earn vs what you keep

The driver's basic P&L:

Gross fares from the platform     R 18,000
Platform commission (Uber/Bolt)   - R 4,500  (already taken)
Net to driver                     R 13,500

Less operating expenses:
  Fuel                            - R 4,800
  Maintenance and tyres           - R 800
  Vehicle finance interest        - R 1,200
  Insurance                       - R 600
  Cellphone and data              - R 350
  Vehicle wear and tear           - R 1,500
                                  ----------
Profit (taxable income)             R 4,250

Tax is calculated on the R4,250, not the R13,500. If you fail to claim the operating expenses, SARS taxes the R13,500.

Roughly: most drivers can legitimately claim 50 to 65% of their net income as operating expenses. The exact percentage depends on the vehicle, how new it is, fuel prices, and how many hours you drive.

Driver-specific deductible categories

These are the categories that matter for an Uber/Bolt/InDriver driver. Each requires receipts, which is what makes the difference between a tidy return and a mess.

Fuel

Single biggest deductible cost for most drivers. Every fuel slip is a tax invoice in SA (Engen, BP, Shell, Sasol, Caltex are all VAT-registered). Capture every one.

The logbook decides what proportion of the fuel is business. If you only drive for the platform, 100% is straightforward. If the same car is used for school runs and weekends, you apportion.

Vehicle maintenance and servicing

Services, oil changes, brake pads, alignment, replacements. The garage gives you a tax invoice. This category is the second-biggest claim for most drivers.

The trap: many drivers go to informal mechanics who don't issue tax invoices. SARS is sympathetic up to a point but really wants the documentation. Either get the invoice or use a formal workshop.

Tyres

A separate line in most drivers' books because tyres wear faster on platform driving than personal use. Three sets a year is normal for full-time drivers. Each one is a tax invoice from the tyre shop.

Insurance

Comprehensive insurance is non-negotiable for platform driving (Uber and Bolt require it). The annual premium or monthly debit is deductible at the business proportion (per the logbook).

If your insurance is rated specifically for ride-share or commercial use (often a higher premium), you can claim more of it because the loading is unambiguously business-related.

Vehicle finance interest

If you bought your vehicle on finance, the interest portion of each repayment is deductible. The capital portion is not (it's offset by depreciation, see below).

The bank issues a quarterly or annual statement showing the interest split. Get one and file it.

Depreciation (wear and tear)

You don't deduct the purchase price of your car in year one. You deduct it gradually over the vehicle's useful life. SARS allows 5 years for passenger vehicles used in trade. So a R200,000 car generates R40,000 of depreciation per year, at the business proportion.

If your business proportion is 70% (per logbook), you deduct R28,000 per year.

The catch: when you eventually sell the vehicle, there's a recoupment calculation that pulls some of this back if you over-claimed. Tax practitioners handle this; just know it exists.

Cellphone and data

Your platform driving runs on a smartphone with constant data. Claim the business proportion of the contract or top-up costs. If the same phone is your personal phone, that's typically 50-70% business.

Parking, tolls, and gate access fees

Parking at the airport while waiting for fares, tolls on the N3, gate fees at gated estates if you drop a passenger. All deductible. Many of these are small (R10-R60) and add up to R500-R1,000 a month.

Cleaning and detailing

Vehicle cleaning is a real driver cost. Weekly car wash, occasional detailing, deep cleaning after a sick passenger. Receipts from the carwash where possible.

Driver gear

Floor mats, seat covers, dash camera, phone mount, charging cables. Not glamorous but legitimately deductible.

The logbook (non-negotiable)

The single most important record for a driver is the logbook.

SARS requires a logbook to substantiate any vehicle-related claim. The logbook must record:

• Opening and closing odometer readings for the year (yes, you read them on 1 March and again on the next 28/29 February)
• Each business trip's date, distance, and business purpose

You don't need to log every personal trip. You need to log every business trip, and the totals at year-start and year-end establish your total km. SARS calculates personal km as the difference.

Example logbook entry:

Date         | Start | End  | Distance | Purpose
2026-04-15   | 8421  | 8489 | 68 km    | Uber trips, Cape Town CBD shifts

For platform drivers, "Uber trips" or "Bolt trips" is acceptable as the business purpose. You don't need to log each individual ride.

There are free apps that GPS-track this automatically (TripLog, MileIQ, the SARS Mobi-Logbook). Or a notebook in the cubbyhole. Both work; the GPS apps are easier.

The cost of no logbook: SARS disallows the entire vehicle deduction. That can wipe out 60% of a driver's deductions in one stroke. This is the single biggest preventable mistake in driver tax returns.

Common mistakes drivers make

A short list, drawn from public SARS guidance and the practical experience of tax practitioners who specialise in this:

1. Claiming 100% business use without a logbook. Audit-bait. Always have the logbook.
2. Mixing personal fuel with business fuel without apportioning. If your car does the school run, fuel is split. Don't claim the school run as business.
3. Buying a Mercedes E-Class on finance and claiming the interest as if it were a business car. SARS knows what an Uber economy car looks like. A R600,000 luxury vehicle being driven for R12 trips raises questions about whether the vehicle is "wholly and exclusively" for the trade.
4. Not registering for provisional tax. The penalties for late registration and late payment compound faster than people realise.
5. Treating the platform commission as an expense. The platform takes its cut before you get the money. The amount that arrives in your account IS the gross income, after commission. Don't double-deduct.
6. Losing the receipts. Without the underlying tax invoices, the deduction gets disallowed on audit.
7. Counting the entire vehicle finance repayment as deductible. Only the interest is. Capital is offset by depreciation, which is calculated separately.

None of these are exotic mistakes. They are the routine errors that SARS auditors flag every cycle.

A realistic example

A full-time Uber driver in Johannesburg, current vehicle a Toyota Corolla bought for R210,000 on finance:

| Annual figures (rough, illustrative) | | |--------------------------------------|----------| | Gross fares from Uber | R 240,000 | | Platform commission | R 60,000 | | Net to driver (taxable basis) | R 180,000 | | Fuel | R 58,000 | | Maintenance and tyres | R 14,000 | | Vehicle finance interest | R 11,000 | | Insurance | R 14,000 | | Cellphone and data (70% business) | R 4,200 | | Cleaning | R 3,600 | | Parking and tolls | R 6,000 | | Wear and tear (5-year line) at 95% business | R 39,900 | | Total deductions | R 150,700 | | Taxable profit | R 29,300 |

The driver's PAYE-equivalent on R29,300 (well below the threshold) would be roughly zero, plus medical aid credits, plus rebates. So the actual tax owed could be small or zero.

Without the deductions, SARS taxes the R180,000 directly. That's tax of around R30,000+ owed.

The difference is the receipts. Capture them or pay tax on income that's largely already gone.

How Snap-a-Slip fits a driver's life

Drivers are the use case Snap-a-Slip was built for. The flow:

1. Fill up at Engen. Take a photo of the slip with WhatsApp before you pull off the forecourt. Send to the bot.
2. Bot replies in 5 seconds with the merchant, total, and category captured. Filed under "Transport".
3. Same routine at the carwash, the tyre shop, the parking garage.
4. End of month, you type /summary and get this month's totals across categories.
5. End of provisional period (August or February), you type /export csv and email the file to your tax practitioner.

The whole thing takes under 30 seconds per receipt. No app to open, no spreadsheet, no missing slips.

The free tier covers 15 receipts a month, which most drivers will exceed. Pro at R99/month covers unlimited receipts and the SARS-friendly logbook export.

Closing

Driving for Uber and Bolt is a real business. SARS treats it like one, and the rules reward drivers who keep clean records. The drivers who fight tax season every year are the ones who don't track receipts. The drivers who file calmly in October and have nothing to fear from an audit are the ones who do.

If you want to start tracking properly today, send your first receipt on WhatsApp. Free for your first 15 receipts a month, no card.

Related reading: How to track receipts for SARS covers the broader rules, and Tax-deductible expenses for SA freelancers extends to the categories beyond driving if you have multiple income streams.