10. FREE OR CHEAP SERVICES
(1) The cash equivalent of the value of any taxable benefit derived from the rendering of a service to any employee as contemplated in paragraph 2(e) shall be –
(a) in the case of any travel facility granted by any employer who is engaged in the business of conveying passengers for reward by sea or by air to enable any employee or any relative of such employee to travel to any destination outside the Republic for his or her private or domestic purposes, an amount equal to the lowest fare payable by a passenger utilising such facility (had he or she paid the full fare), less the amount of any consideration given by the employee or his or her relative in respect of such facility: Provided that for the purposes hereof a forward journey and a return journey shall be regarded as one journey; or
(b) in the case of the rendering of any other service as contemplated in the said paragraph, the cost to the employer in rendering such service or having such service rendered, less the amount of any consideration given by the employee in respect of such service.
(2) No value shall be placed under this paragraph on –
(a) any travel facility granted by any employer who is engaged in the business of conveying passengers for reward by land, sea or air to enable any employee in his employment or such employee’s spouse or minor child to travel –
(i) to any destination in the Republic or to travel overland to any destination outside the Republic; or
(ii) to any destination outside the Republic if such travel was undertaken on a flight or voyage made in the ordinary course of the employer’s business and such employee, spouse or minor child was not permitted to make a firm advance reservation of the seat or berth occupied by him or her;
(b) any transport service rendered by any employer to his employees in general for the conveyance of such employees from their homes to the place of their employment and vice versa;
(bA) any communication service provided to an employee if the service is used mainly for the purposes of the employer’s business;
(c) any services rendered by an employer to his employees at their place of work for the better performance of their duties or as a benefit to be enjoyed by them at that place or for recreational purposes at that place or a place of recreation provided by the employer for the use of his employees in general;
[Item (c) amended by section 42(1) of Act 20 of 2021 effective on 1 March, 2022 and applicable in respect of years of assessment commencing on or after that date]
(d) any travel facility granted by an employer to the spouse or any minor child of an employee if-
(i) that employee is for the duration of the term of his or her employment stationed for purposes of the business of that employer at a specific place in the Republic further than 250 kilometers away from his or her usual place of residence in the Republic;
(ii) that employee is required to spend more than 183 days during the relevant year of assessment at that specific place for purposes of the business of that employer; and
(iii) that facility is granted in respect of travel between that employee’s usual place of residence in the Republic and that specific place where the employee is so stationed; or
[Item (d) deleted by section 36 of Act 30 of 2002, added by section 58 of Act 31 of 2005, substituted by section 69(1) of Act 35 of 2007 and amended by section 42(1) of Act 20 of 2021 effective on 1 March, 2022 and applicable in respect of years of assessment commencing on or after that date]
(e) any services granted by an employer to an employee for long service as defined in paragraph 5(4) to the extent that it does not exceed R5 000: Provided that the aggregate value of an amount determined under this paragraph together with all amounts determined under paragraph (vii) of the proviso to paragraph (c) of the definition of “gross income” in section 1 and paragraphs 5(2)(b) and 6(4)(d) of the Seventh Schedule does not exceed R5 000.
[Item (e) added by section 42(1) of Act 20 of 2021 effective on 1 March, 2022 and applicable in respect of years of assessment commencing on or after that date]