South Africa self-employed net income calculator (sole proprietor)
Your net income as a South African sole proprietor is taxable profit minus income tax at the ordinary individual rates, reduced by the primary rebate — and paid twice a year as provisional tax rather than at year end.
Worked example: with Annual taxable profit of 600,000, this model computes Net income / year 467,093. See the full breakdown.
⚠ Illustrative rates Updated for 2026 · sources checked 2026-08-22
How sole proprietor in South Africa is calculated
A sole proprietor is not a separate taxpayer in South Africa. Business profit is added to your personal income and taxed on the same table as a salary, which means there is nothing to look up beyond the individual brackets and the rebates — and no compulsory social contribution of the kind almost every European country levies.
What does change is the timing. Income not subject to PAYE makes you a provisional taxpayer, so the liability is estimated and paid in two instalments, in August and the following February, with an optional third top-up. Under-estimating the first payment carries penalties, which is why the annual figure matters months before the return is due.
Worked example
| Annual taxable profit (ZAR) | 600000 |
|---|---|
| Tax before rebate ✓ | 150727 |
| Income tax after primary rebate ✓ | 132907 |
| Net income / year ✓ | 467093 |
Every row is computed by the engine from the inputs above. Rows marked ✓ are additionally pinned by a published self-test vector.
Frequently asked questions
How much tax does a sole proprietor pay on 600,000 ZAR?
About 150,727 ZAR before rebates, reduced by the 17,820 ZAR primary rebate to roughly 132,907 ZAR — leaving about 467,093 ZAR.
What is the primary rebate?
A credit of 17,820 ZAR deducted from the tax itself rather than from income. It is what creates the 99,000 ZAR tax threshold for a taxpayer under 65.
When is provisional tax due?
Two compulsory payments: the first by 31 August based on at least half the estimated annual liability, the second by the end of February for the balance. A third voluntary payment can top it up.
Sources
- SARS — Provisional tax · checked 2026-08-22
- SARS tax tables 2026/2027 — individual brackets and rebates · checked 2026-08-22
Estimate. Not tax advice. The rates in this calculator are illustrative: they reproduce the shape of the charge through 3 self-test cases, but they are not the official schedule, so the amount shown will not match your bill. Use the official source above for that.
Check the arithmetic yourself: how this calculator is verified — the formula behind every derived value, the 3 test cases the engine reproduces, and what the badge does and does not claim. Also available as machine-readable JSON.
Related calculators
United Kingdom sole trader · Australia sole trader · USA self-employed (federal) · Singapore self-employed · South Korea 개인사업자
Also for South Africa: South Africa salary after tax · South Africa licence disc
All South Africa calculators · All calculators
Fork this model in the Valem sandbox →
Built with Valem — a live, verifiable calculator you can fork and embed.