6 min read · Updated 5 August 2026
What the claim actually rests on
SARS is not asking whether you farm. It is asking you to show an unbroken line from a litre you bought, through storage, to a job on your own land. Purchase, storage, use. Break any of the three and the litres in the gap are not claimable, however obviously agricultural they were.
- Purchase — the delivery note or invoice, with litres and date.
- Storage — what went into the tank, and what came out of it.
- Use — which machine, doing what, where, and how much.
The most common failure
A draw from the tank with no machine against it. It is the easiest field to skip and the first one an auditor asks about, because a litre that went nowhere in particular could have gone into a bakkie on the N1.
Write the machine the same way every time
This sounds trivial and it is the thing that quietly ruins the total. A tractor and the same tractor with a sprayer on the back are one machine that burns diesel, but written two ways a spreadsheet reads them as two. We found exactly that in our own data: one tractor's diesel split 46.9 litres and 84 litres across two spellings, with nothing on screen to say so.
Pick a name per machine and never vary it. An implement is not a machine — the sprayer does not burn diesel, the tractor pulling it does.
Record what it was used FOR, not whether it qualifies
A bakkie hauling feed between camps can qualify; the same bakkie on a public road does not. That determination belongs to your tax practitioner. Your job is to record the use honestly and completely — farm work, road transport, generator — and let him map use to eligibility.
Why we never quote you a refund figure
FarmBind reports litres, dates and uses, and shows the published rate for the period. It never computes what you are owed. Putting a rand figure on a tax claim is tax advice, and being wrong about it costs you more than the feature is worth.
A template to start with tonight
One row per movement. Fill the machine column even when it feels obvious — especially then.
Diesel logbook — free template
Opens in Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers. No sign-up.
| Date | Machine | What the job was | Where | Litres | Hour meter / odometer | What it was used for | Delivery note / reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-06-20 | JD 6120 | Sprayed | Rivier blok | 84 | 4 180 h | Farm work | SN-4471 |
| 2026-06-22 | Hilux | Fetched feed | Town | 60 | 214 500 km | Road transport | SN-4478 |
| 2026-07-01 | Dieselpomp | Irrigation | Bo-land | 26 | — | Farm work | SN-4502 |
- SARS's most common rejection is a claim that cannot tie a litre to a machine and a job. Fill the machine column even when it feels obvious.
- Write the machine the SAME way every time. 'JD 6120' and 'JD 6120 + spuit' become two machines in a spreadsheet, and the total is then wrong in a way nothing shows you.
- Record what the fuel was USED FOR, not whether it qualifies. Eligibility is your tax practitioner's call, not yours and not ours.
- This sheet does not add up your rebate, and neither does FarmBind — quoting a refund figure is tax advice.
Where a spreadsheet stops
It will hold the record. What it will not do is notice that most of your litres have no machine against them, tell you the tank should be holding 400 litres more than the dipstick says, or be searched across three seasons while an auditor waits. Those are the moments a sheet turns from a record into a liability.
Or let the logbook write itself
FarmBind builds it out of work you already capture — the job, the machine, the litres — and prints it as a report.
Start freeCommon questions
- Do I need a separate tank record if I already log every job?
- For a refund claim, yes. Jobs show use; the tank shows purchase and storage. The line has to be unbroken, and a job record alone starts halfway along it.
- What if I did not record the hour meter?
- Start recording it now and do not reconstruct it backwards. A meter reading you guessed is worse than a blank one, because it looks like evidence.
- Does FarmBind work out my refund for me?
- No, deliberately. It reports litres, dates, machines and what each was used for, and shows the published rate. What qualifies, and what you are owed, is your tax practitioner's determination.