South Africa Take-Home Pay Calculator (PAYE & UIF)

About the South Africa Take-Home Pay Calculator (PAYE & UIF)

See what lands in your bank account each month in South Africa. Enter your gross monthly salary, your age, what your employer deducts for a pension, provident fund or retirement annuity, and your medical aid: the calculator works out PAYE the way SARS tells employers to (your pay less allowed contributions, as a yearly amount on the tax table, less the rebates, divided by 12, less the medical scheme fees tax credit), takes off UIF at 1% up to its ceiling, and shows your take-home pay a month and a year.

Add a bonus or 13th cheque to see the PAYE on it by SARS’s annual-payment method and your take-home pay in that month. The calculator also compares the PAYE over the year with the tax on assessment, so you know whether to expect a refund. Nothing you type leaves your browser.

Without a pass, the free preview shows the take-home pay a month in full, with the first rows of the pay table and of the PAYE working; a Pro pass unlocks every figure, the bonus month, the whole PAYE working, the summary to copy and the CSV.

How PAYE is worked out

Employers deduct employees’ tax (PAYE) from each salary on the balance of remuneration: your pay less the pension, provident and retirement annuity contributions they deduct, which count up to 27,5% of your pay. That balance times 12 is taxed on the annual table, the rebates for your age come off, and the result divided by 12 is the month’s tax; the medical scheme fees tax credit then comes off it (SARS employer guide). SARS also prints monthly tables in bands of pay; small differences between the tables and an exact calculation from the tax rates are allowed (SARS).

UIF

You and your employer each pay 1% of your remuneration to the Unemployment Insurance Fund, on pay up to R17 712 a month, so at most R177,12 each. It does not apply to work of under 24 hours a month for the employer, or to national and provincial government officers (SARS). Employers whose payroll is above R500 000 a year also pay the 1% Skills Development Levy (SARS Budget FAQs); neither comes out of your pay beyond your own UIF.

Medical aid in your PAYE

The medical scheme fees tax credit — R376 a month for you, R376 for your first dependant and R254 for each other one — comes straight off your PAYE (SARS). From 65 your employer also takes off the additional medical expenses tax credit on the fees: 33,3% of the fees above three times the credit. Out-of-pocket medical costs only count on assessment.

Bonuses and 13th cheques

PAYE on a bonus is the tax on your yearly pay plus the bonus, less the tax on your yearly pay alone: the bonus is taxed at your marginal rate, often higher than your usual average rate. That is why a bonus month’s PAYE jumps, even though the tax for the year comes out right.

PAYE and your assessment

PAYE is an advance on your income tax. Your assessment adds everything your employer did not know about — a retirement annuity you pay yourself, medical costs, other income, a second job — and SARS refunds or collects the difference. The income tax calculator works out the year with all of them.

Limitations

• For an employee paid monthly for the whole tax year. Weekly and fortnightly pay, part years and tax directives are not covered.
• Enter allowances and fringe benefits as part of gross pay at the amount payroll taxes: for example 80% of a travel allowance (20% when at least 80% of the use is for business), per the SARS employer guide.
• Employer contributions to your pension or medical aid are a taxable benefit that also counts as yours; include them in gross pay and in your contribution or fees if your payslip shows them.
• Other deductions after tax (union fees, loans, garnishee orders) are not taken off.

Privacy

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