VAT Calculator South Africa (2026/2027)

South Africa’s standard VAT rate is 15%, unchanged since 1 April 2018 when it increased from 14%. SARS still lists 15% as the current rate, and a rise proposed in 2025 was reversed. VAT applies to the supply of goods and services by registered vendors, and to imports of goods.

As a consumer, VAT is already included in the price you see on shelves — every price a vendor charges, advertises or quotes must include VAT. As a business, whether you charge VAT depends on whether you’re a registered vendor and whether the supply is standard-rated, zero-rated, or exempt.

• Mandatory registration applies when your taxable supplies (your sales, not your profit) exceed R2.3 million in any consecutive 12-month period (raised from R1 million effective 1 April 2026), or when you have a written contract that will take you over that amount within the next 12 months. Taxable supplies are your standard-rated and zero-rated sales; exempt sales don’t count. Once your running 12-month total passes the threshold you become liable to register, and you have 21 business days to apply.
• Voluntary registration is available once your taxable supplies exceed R120,000/year (up from R50,000 effective 1 April 2026), and SARS can still refuse an application that doesn’t meet its other conditions. It’s useful if you sell mostly to other VAT vendors, because they can claim the VAT you charge back as input tax, so charging VAT doesn’t cost them anything.
• Registration is per legal entity. A sole proprietor registers as a person; so does a company, partnership or trust. If one person runs several businesses, the sales of all of them are added together to test the threshold.

Registration gives you a VAT number, obligations to file VAT returns (usually every two months), and the right to claim input VAT on purchases. If you are already registered and your sales are between R120,000 and R2.3m, SARS says your registration is not cancelled automatically and you may choose to cancel it. Cancelling has a cost: you must pay VAT on stock and assets you still hold (known as deemed exit VAT). SARS also says that, once the legislation is promulgated, it will notify voluntary vendors that fall below the new voluntary threshold of its intention to cancel their registration.

Subject to legislation. The higher VAT thresholds were announced in Budget 2026 for 1 April 2026 and are subject to Parliament’s legislative process. SARS says that, until the legislation is promulgated, it is administering new VAT registrations on the higher thresholds from 1 April 2026. Check SARS for the latest.

Zero-rated and exempt look similar (no VAT charged to customer) but matter enormously for the vendor. Zero-rated means you don’t charge VAT on the sale but you can still claim input VAT on your business purchases. Exempt means you don’t charge, and you can’t claim input VAT on the related purchases — making exempt activities more expensive to run.

South Africa zero-rates a list of basic foodstuffs and certain other supplies to keep essentials affordable. The foodstuffs are listed in the VAT Act, with conditions, and apply to the plain product rather than prepared meals or mixed packs. Typical zero-rated items:

• Brown bread and brown bread flour.
• Maize meal, samp, dried mealies and mealie rice.
• Rice (uncooked), dried beans and lentils.
• Milk, cultured milk, milk powder and dairy powder blend.
• Fresh fruit and vegetables.
• Hens’ eggs, and edible legumes and pulses (peas, beans, peanuts).
• Pilchards in tins or cans, and vegetable cooking oil (not olive oil).
• Illuminating paraffin sold “marked” as fuel or for heating.
• Sanitary pads (zero-rated from 1 April 2019).
• Exports of goods (when the exporter can show they left South Africa).
• International transport of goods and passengers.

• Many financial services, such as interest on loans and life insurance. Fees, commissions and similar charges on financial services are still subject to VAT.
• Letting a home to live in (long-term residential rental).
• Passenger transport by road or rail between two places in South Africa (taxis, buses, trains).
• Education supplied by state schools, schools registered under the Schools Act, registered colleges and universities, and some approved non-profit institutions.
• Crèches and after-school care centres.

The rule for working backwards from a VAT-inclusive price: multiply by 15/115 (or divide by 1.15 and subtract) to get the VAT component. A R115 retail item contains R15 of VAT and R100 of net sale.

• Category A — two-monthly returns for periods ending in January, March, May, July, September and November. SARS gives most new vendors Category A or B.
• Category B — two-monthly returns for periods ending in February, April, June, August, October and December.
• Category C — monthly returns, for vendors whose turnover exceeds (or is likely to exceed) R30 million in any 12 months, or who apply for it.
• Category D — six-monthly returns, for micro businesses (on application) and for farming businesses with turnover of R1.5 million or less.
• Category E — one return a year, for companies or trusts whose only supplies are letting fixed property, renting out movable goods or administering those companies, made to connected VAT-registered persons.

Returns (the VAT201) and payment are due by the 25th of the month after your period ends, or by the last business day of that month if you file and pay electronically on eFiling. Category C vendors must use eFiling. Keep valid tax invoices: you need the prescribed proof, normally a tax invoice, to claim input VAT. A full tax invoice is required when a sale is R5,000 or more (including VAT), and for any zero-rated sale. Smaller sales can use an abridged invoice, and none is needed under R50. A full invoice shows the supplier’s VAT number and, for a VAT-registered buyer, the buyer’s details.

Enter a VAT-inclusive or VAT-exclusive amount and the calculator extracts the VAT component, shows you the other two, and indicates what the output VAT, input VAT, or net payable would be depending on context.

For a full VAT period calculation, use the calculator with your total output (sales) figure and total input (qualifying purchases) figure — the difference is what you owe SARS (or claim back if inputs exceed outputs, common for exporters and start-ups with high setup costs).

• SARS — Value-Added Tax
• SARS — VAT 404 Guide for Vendors
• SARS — Budget 2026 Frequently Asked Questions (VAT registration threshold)
• National Treasury — 2026 Budget Review (Table 4.6)