South Africa taxes personal income in seven brackets. The more taxable income a person earns, the higher the rate on each additional rand, from 18% up to 45%.

What is a tax bracket?

A bracket is a slice of taxable income with its own rate. Only the rand inside a slice is taxed at that slice’s rate. According to the South African Revenue Service (SARS), for the tax year from 1 March 2026 to 28 February 2027 the first slice runs to R245,100 at 18%. The second runs to R383,100 at 26%, and the third to R530,200 at 31%.

The fourth runs to R695,800 at 36%, the fifth to R887,000 at 39% and the sixth to R1,878,600 at 41%. Income above R1,878,600 is taxed at 45%. SARS’s table gives each bracket a fixed amount for the slices below it, plus a percentage of the income above its lower limit.

What does a rebate do?

A rebate is taken off the tax calculated from the table, rand for rand. Everyone gets the primary rebate, R17,820 for 2026/27. A person aged 65 or older adds the secondary rebate of R9,765, and a person aged 75 or older adds the tertiary rebate of R3,249.

What is the tax threshold?

The threshold is the income at which the rebate wipes out all the tax. It is R99,000 for a person under 65, R153,250 at 65 and older, and R171,300 at 75 and older. Below it, no income tax is payable on the table’s rates.

Top of each income tax bracket, rand of taxable income

2025/262026/27

18%18%: 2025/26: R237,100R237,10018%: 2026/27: R245,100R245,10026%26%: 2025/26: R370,500R370,50026%: 2026/27: R383,100R383,10031%31%: 2025/26: R512,800R512,80031%: 2026/27: R530,200R530,20036%36%: 2025/26: R673,000R673,00036%: 2026/27: R695,800R695,80039%39%: 2025/26: R857,900R857,90039%: 2026/27: R887,000R887,00041%41%: 2025/26: R1,817,000R1,817,00041%: 2026/27: R1,878,600R1,878,600
18%18%: 2025/26: R237,100R237,10018%: 2026/27: R245,100R245,10026%26%: 2025/26: R370,500R370,50026%: 2026/27: R383,100R383,10031%31%: 2025/26: R512,800R512,80031%: 2026/27: R530,200R530,20036%36%: 2025/26: R673,000R673,00036%: 2026/27: R695,800R695,80039%39%: 2025/26: R857,900R857,90039%: 2026/27: R887,000R887,00041%41%: 2025/26: R1,817,000R1,817,00041%: 2026/27: R1,878,600R1,878,600

Source: South African Revenue Service, Rates of Tax for Individuals, and National Treasury, 2026 Budget Review, Table 4.4. Tax years 2025/26 (to 28 February 2026) and 2026/27 (from 1 March 2026); the seventh bracket has no upper limit. Chart: Rand Desk

What changed in 2026?

In the 2026 Budget Review, National Treasury raised the brackets and rebates by 3.4%, its inflation forecast for 2026/27. The two previous budgets had given taxpayers no full inflation adjustment, the review said. The first bracket’s upper limit rose from R237,100 to R245,100, and the primary rebate from R17,235 to R17,820.

The medical tax credit also rose: R376 now covers each of the first two members, up from R364, and R254 each further member, up from R246. Its table of the effect on taxpayers shows personal income tax falling by R13.7 billion against what the old parameters would have raised.

A worked example

A person with taxable income of R400,000 shows how it adds up. The third bracket starts at R383,101, with R79,998 as the fixed amount. The R16,900 above R383,100 is taxed at 31%, which is R5,239. Tax before the rebate is R85,237, and after the primary rebate it is R67,417. That is 16.9% of the income, against the 31% rate that applies to the last slice.

Where to check your own position

Individuals file through SARS eFiling, where the assessment applies the table automatically. The deadlines for this year’s returns are in SARS’s filing season story, and the national minimum wage explainer shows what a full-time worker on the minimum earns before tax.

The SARS rates page carries the tables for earlier years. Treasury publishes the next set of brackets in the Budget each February, normally to take effect on 1 March; the Budget Review quoted here was published on 25 February 2026.