PAYE calculator South Africa (2026/27 monthly salary tax).

Pay As You Earn (PAYE) is income tax that your employer withholds from your salary every month and pays over to SARS on your behalf. Rather than facing one large tax bill at the end of the year, your tax is collected in monthly instalments as you earn. The amount deducted is based on the SARS tax tables, your projected annual income and the rebate for your age band.

Because PAYE is an estimate spread across twelve months, it is reconciled against your actual liability when you file your annual return. If your employer deducted more than you owed — often because of retirement contributions or medical credits not fully accounted for each month — SARS refunds the difference.

PAYE follows the same progressive, marginal system as annual income tax, just expressed monthly. The calculation works in four steps:

These three are easily confused but are not the same. Income tax is the total tax you owe on your annual income. PAYE is simply the way that income tax is collected from a salary — monthly, in advance. UIF is a separate 1% contribution (matched by your employer, up to a monthly ceiling) that funds the Unemployment Insurance Fund — it is not income tax at all.

On a payslip you will typically see PAYE and UIF deducted separately from your gross salary. The calculator shows both, so you can see exactly how your gross becomes your net take-home pay.

Contributions to a pension, provident fund or retirement annuity are deducted from your income before PAYE is calculated — up to 27.5% of taxable income, capped at R350,000 a year. Because your taxable income is lower, the tax SARS applies is lower too, so your monthly PAYE falls immediately.

The saving equals your marginal rate multiplied by the contribution. A taxpayer in the 36% bracket who contributes R2,000 a month to an RA reduces their monthly PAYE by roughly R720 — effectively the government co-funding their retirement savings. Use the RA field above to model this for your own salary.

Many salaried taxpayers receive a refund after filing. This happens because PAYE is deducted on a month-by-month estimate that cannot always see your full tax picture — additional retirement contributions, medical scheme credits, or income that stopped partway through the year can all mean too much was withheld.

When you file your annual return, SARS recalculates your true liability and refunds any over-deduction. The calculator's refund estimate gives you an early indication of where you might stand, so there are no surprises at filing time.

Take a 35-year-old earning R45,000 a month (R540,000 a year) with no retirement contributions. Annualising the salary and applying the 2026/27 SARS brackets gives gross annual tax of about R129,100, less the primary rebate of R17,820, for roughly R111,300 a year — close to R9,280 a month in PAYE, plus UIF of R177.12.

Now add a 10% RA contribution (R4,500 a month). Taxable income drops to R486,000, annual tax falls to around R94,100 after the rebate, and monthly PAYE drops to roughly R7,840 — a saving of about R1,440 a month before the retirement saving itself is even counted. Enter your own numbers above to see your net take-home salary.