Living in Cape Town does not move the return offshore
A product salary paid by a company in London or San Francisco, into a South African account, while you live in Sea Point or Observatory, is still part of a South African tax picture if you are ordinarily resident here. Section 10(1)(o) is about days you were physically outside the country. It is not a reward for having a remote job title on a Cape Town lease.
Stellenbosch is a different municipality (Cape Winelands, not the City of Cape Town). The income-tax rules are not different, so the Stellenbosch URL redirects to this page. Techno Park contractors, university staff, and De Zalze salaries are the same national form.
Tourism, film, and short-lets
Seasonal work in the CBD, the Atlantic Seaboard, and the Winelands often arrives as invoices or platform payouts rather than a single IRP5. That income is still declared. It does not become exempt because the season is short or because the client was a visitor.
A flat let on Airbnb or a similar platform is rental income: the gross comes in, and trade expenses belong only if you are actually running that letting as a trade and you keep the records. There is no Mother City exemption for short-lets. The rental guide covers the gross-in, expenses-out shape.
Laptops, rooms, and the Atlantic Seaboard lease
Wear-and-tear on a laptop used for a trade follows Interpretation Note 47 (computers are commonly written off over three years, not the full price in month one). A home office in a Sea Point flat still needs a room set aside regularly and exclusively. Mortgage interest is not part of an employee home-office claim.
Claremont, Century City, and the CBD have a thick layer of salaried tech and professional staff. For them section 23(m) is usually the whole story, plus medical credits and retirement contributions. The interesting deductions sit with people who have a trade beside, or instead of, that salary.
Taxzi reads a bank statement and flags lines that may qualify. You confirm each one. Nothing here files a return with SARS, and Taxzi is not a registered tax practitioner.