The legislation in this regard remains unchanged.
Loans in aggregate of less than R 3 000 at any one stage do not attract any fringe benefit tax. If the loan exceeds this value though, SARS will raise a fringe benefit based on the SARS interest rate applied to the loan balance. This fringe benefit will be added to the employee’s taxable remuneration that month. Generally payroll systems will do this calculation for you provided you notify the payroll administrator of the loan balance, the agreed monthly repayments and whether an interest rate is applied to the loan. If this interest rate is equal to or higher than the SARS official rate (currently 7.75%) no fringe benefit will be applicable. If it is lower the payroll will tax the difference monthly.