Capital gains tax calculator South Africa: SARS inclusion rate and exclusions

South Africa has no separate capital gains tax rate. You add up the year's capital gains, subtract capital losses, the annual exclusion and any other exclusions that apply, and then include 40% of the net capital gain in your taxable income. That 40% slice is taxed at whatever marginal rate your total income lands in. The remaining 60% of the gain is never taxed, which is why a large gain tops out at an effective 18% (40% of the 45% top rate).

The annual exclusion is the first slice of your NET capital gain for the year that is disregarded: R50,000 from the 2027 year of assessment (Budget 2026 raised it from R40,000, the first increase since 2017). It applies once a year across all your disposals, after losses are netted, not once per sale. If your net result for the year is a capital loss, the exclusion reduces the loss that carries forward by the same amount. In the year a person dies the exclusion is R440,000 instead.

Where the home you lived in made a gain, the first R3,000,000 of that gain is excluded outright (R2,000,000 for disposals before 1 March 2026, when Budget 2026 raised it). The exclusion applies per disposal and only if the property was your main residence: if you let part of it out, ran a business from it, or the grounds exceed two hectares, SARS apportions the gain and the excluded share shrinks. A loss on your main home is not excluded; the full loss is claimable against other capital gains.

Capital gains tax started on 1 October 2001, the valuation date. For assets acquired before it you may use the market value on that date as your base cost instead of the original cost: enter it on the sale row and the calculator swaps it in (everything after that date, improvements included, still counts). The alternative is time-apportionment, where the gain is split between the periods before and after 1 October 2001. The calculator does not compute time-apportionment; the market-value election is the simpler route.

Personal-use assets are things used mainly for private or domestic purposes: your household furniture and effects, a private vehicle, jewellery, art and collectables kept for private use. Both gains and losses on them are excluded from capital gains tax under paragraph 54(3) of the Eighth Schedule, so a private vehicle never appears in the return's numbers. The calculator's Private vehicle card applies this automatically. Shares, crypto, let-out property and business assets are not personal-use assets.

18% of the gain. The maximum marginal rate is 45% and only 40% of a net gain is included, so 40% times 45% equals 18%, and only a gain large enough to sit entirely in the top bracket reaches it. A smaller gain, or one stacked on a modest income, is taxed at a lower effective rate because the included slice falls partly in lower brackets.

The year of assessment runs from 1 March to the last day of February and is named for the February it ends: a sale on 5 March 2025 belongs to the 2026 year (1 March 2025 to 28 February 2026), and so does a sale on 20 January 2026. A sale on 1 March 2026 opens the 2027 year. The calculator scopes every sale to its own year and leaves out any dated outside the return you have open.

Yes, indefinitely. Current-year losses first net against current-year gains, then assessed capital losses brought forward from earlier years reduce what remains, and then the annual exclusion applies. Unused losses carry forward as an assessed capital loss until they can be used; they never offset your salary or other income in the year they arise. Type the brought-forward balance from your notice of assessment into section 3.

Both describe the same number differently. The marginal rate is the bracket rate your taxable income tops out at once the included gain is added: it prices the last rand of the gain. The effective rate is the tax on the gain divided by the whole gain: because only 40% is included and the inclusion may straddle several brackets, it is always the lower figure, capped at 18%.

Budget 2027 is delivered in February 2027, and SARS publishes the 2028 brackets, rebates and exclusions only then. Until that lands the calculator carries the 2027 figures forward and marks the 2028 year as an estimate.