About

HowTaxWorks is a free tax information website for all South Africans

Why does this site exist?

Tax in South Africa is confusing. SARS publishes tax tables, brackets, rebates, and thresholds every year — but understanding what it all means for your payslip is another story entirely. How much income tax will you actually pay? What happens to your take-home pay when you get a raise? How much capital gains tax do you owe when you sell your house? What tax relief do you get from contributing to a retirement annuity?

These are real questions that real South Africans ask every single day. And the answers are often buried in SARS guides, scattered across financial adviser blogs, or locked behind paywalls.

That is why I created HowTaxWorks.co.za — to give South Africans a free, simple, and easy-to-understand resource for answering everyday tax questions. No jargon. No sign-ups. Just calculators and clear explanations based on the latest SARS tax tables.

My story

My name is Walter. I also created ratecompare.co.za, a free fixed deposit comparison website for South Africans. After building RateCompare, I kept getting questions from users — not just about savings rates, but about tax. Questions like:

• "How much tax will I pay on my salary?"
• "If I get a R5,000 raise, how much of that will I actually take home?"
• "How does capital gains tax work when I sell shares?"
• "Is it worth putting money into a retirement annuity for the tax benefit?"
• "How much tax do I pay on my annual bonus?"

I realised that while there are bits and pieces of tax information scattered across the internet, there was no single, simple place where ordinary South Africans could get quick answers with actual calculators to plug in their own numbers.

How HowTaxWorks was born

I started by building a simple income tax calculator. I took the SARS tax tables, coded the brackets, rebates, and thresholds, and built a tool where you type in your salary and immediately see your tax, UIF, and take-home pay. No complicated forms. No waiting. Just instant results.

Then the questions kept coming. So I built more calculators:

• Income tax calculator — see exactly how much income tax you pay on your salary, updated for the 2026/27 tax year
• Bonus tax calculator — find out how much tax you will pay on your annual bonus
• Salary comparison calculator — compare two salaries side by side to see the difference after tax
• Salary increase calculator — understand how much of a raise you actually take home
• Capital gains on shares — calculate CGT when selling investments
• Capital gains on primary residence — understand the R2 million exclusion
• Pension and RA tax deductions — see how much you can save on tax through retirement contributions
• Medical aid tax credits — calculate your monthly medical tax credit
• UIF calculator — understand your UIF contributions and benefits

Each calculator is built using the official SARS tax tables and rates. I update them every year when the new budget is announced. The current calculators use the March 2026 – February 2027 tax year rates.

What makes HowTaxWorks different

There are other tax calculators out there. But here is what I try to do differently:

• Simple language — I explain tax concepts the way I would explain them to a friend, not the way SARS writes their guides
• Instant results — no sign-ups, no email required, no waiting. Type in a number and get your answer
• Always up to date — calculators are updated as soon as the new SARS tax tables are published each year
• Free — this site is completely free to use. No hidden fees, no premium tier
• Built for real questions — every calculator on this site exists because a real South African asked that question

Important disclaimer

HowTaxWorks is an educational and informational tool. The calculators are based on the published SARS tax tables and are designed to give you a good estimate of your tax position. However, this site does not provide professional tax advice. Individual circumstances vary — if you have a complex tax situation (multiple income sources, foreign income, trusts, etc.), you should consult a registered tax practitioner.

The calculations assume you are a South African tax resident and are based on standard SARS rates. They do not account for all possible deductions, exemptions, or special circumstances.

Get in touch

Have a tax question you would like answered? Found a bug or have a suggestion? I would love to hear from you.

Email me at questions@howtaxworks.co.za

Kind regards,
Walter from HowTaxWorks.co.za

Also check out my other project: ratecompare.co.za — compare fixed deposit rates from South African banks.