SARS’ continued attack on the ability of taxpayers to claim relief for the education costs of the disabled has been described as ‘mean and disrespectful’, according to a Moneyweb report.

School fees as a qualifying expense have been removed in the recent draft response document on the list of qualifying physical impairment or disability expenditure.

This, says the report, is the latest curveball thrown at parents of disabled children to ostensibly ‘curb abuse’ and prevent discrimination against parents with abled children.

SARS argues in the document that school fees are not in the consequence of a disability but in consequence of education. Therefore, school fees will no longer qualify as a medical expense.

Craig Miller, tax director at Webber Wentzel, says this is a very simplistic way of looking at it. There is a reason for the existence of special needs schools. Special needs children cannot survive in a mainstream environment and the government has not provided any viable alternatives, he says.

‘The special needs school creates the structure from where the different therapies can be administered in order for the children to develop, as mainstream schools typically do not have the infrastructure. These schools often operate on the premise that the school fees cover the therapies offered at the school.’

In terms of the proposed new rules, the parent must separately list the cost of ‘interventions’ at the school ‘in consequence’ of the disability.

This includes among others, a care worker assisting a child, a social worker or psychologist, occupational therapist, physiotherapist, or audiologist assisting the learner.

‘It wants you to itemise every therapy which is provided at the school. It is really difficult to see how this will work in practice,’ said Miller.

Learners with disabilities go to special needs schools precisely because they have a disability, says Kyle Mandy, tax technical and policy director at PwC, in the Moneyweb report.

The link with the disability is therefore obvious.

Miller says he cannot imagine that the latest change will result in a material revenue gain to the fiscus.

In fact, if SARS focused their energies on a few other things they may find that this is small change in terms of tax collection. 

‘This new amendment is particularly surprising given that SARS has recently amended the treatment of school fees. Now it is changing (the guidelines) again and people have not been given proper notice.’

Affected parties have until 31 May to respond.

Full Moneyweb report