Your company ceased trading in, say, September 2025. What expenses between October 2025 and February 2026 are deductible for tax?

We first have to go to s11(a) of the Income Tax Act which states that an expense is deductible if it is actually incurred in the production of income, provided it is not of a capital nature.

There was no income after September 2025, so are all expenses thereafter disallowed?

My opinion (and that’s all it is) is that certain expenses were required as a result of the production of income and would therefore be deductible. I can think of these examples –

Bookkeeping fees for the entire year, because this is necessary in order to submit the tax return.

Fees for the submission of statutory returns for the year. This would include SARS, CIPC, COIDA, UIF etc. for that year only.

I can’t think of any more.

What about Nil VAT returns after the September period until de-registered for VAT? And then fees for de-registration for VAT? I really don’t know!