What You Want to Take Home

The amount you want to actually land in your bank account, after PAYE, UIF and every deduction you list below.
R
The year of assessment runs 1 March to 28/29 February. Brackets and rebates changed for 2027 and the retirement cap rose from R350 000 to R430 000.
Your age on the last day of the year of assessment. From 65 you get the secondary rebate and from 75 the tertiary one, so you need less gross for the same net.
Under 6565–7475+
35 years old

What Comes Off Your Payslip

Your own contribution to a pension, provident or retirement annuity fund, as a percentage of your gross salary. It comes off your pay, but it also reduces the tax — section 11F allows it up to 27.5% of income, capped in rands per year.
0% of gross — R 0 p/m
You plus your dependants. Each member earns a medical scheme fees tax credit that reduces the PAYE withheld — so the more members, the less gross you need.
0 members
What actually comes off your payslip for medical aid. This is not a tax deduction — the tax relief comes through the credits above — but it does reduce what lands in your account.
R
Anything else your employer takes off — group life, a staff loan, a garnishee order, union dues, parking. These reduce your take-home but not your tax.
R

This calculator provides estimates only and does not constitute tax advice. It works out the cash salary you need, taxed as ordinary remuneration on the annual tables. It does not model travel or other allowances taxed at 80% / 20%, fringe benefits such as a company car or employer medical contributions, commission, bonuses, share incentives, an employer's contribution to your retirement fund (itself a taxable fringe benefit that also counts towards the section 11F limit), a tax directive, or the section 6B additional medical expenses credit. Employers apply PAYE monthly, so a real payslip can differ by a few rand from the annual answer. Consult a registered tax professional for your situation.

Gross Salary You Need Per Month

R 36 901

To take home R 30 000 a month — that is R 6 901 of deductions, or 18.7% of gross.

Annual Gross

R 442 815

PAYE

R 6 724

Cost to Company

R 37 447

2027 (Mar 2026 – Feb 2027)31% marginal rate18.2% effective taxSolved to the rand

Where the Gross Goes

Detailed Calculation

Gross salaryR 36 901
Taxable incomeR 36 901
Tax after rebatesR 6 724
PAYER 6 724
UIF (1%, capped)R 177
Take-home payR 30 000
Matches your target of R 30 000

What It Costs Your Employer

per month
Gross salaryR 36 901
Employer UIF (1%, matched and capped)R 177
Skills Development Levy (1%)R 369
Total cost to companyR 37 447

For every R1 that reaches your bank account, your employer spends R1.25.

The next R1 000 of gross is worth R690 to you. At this salary you are in the 31% bracket. So an extra R1 000 of gross a month moves your take-home by roughly R690 a month — worth knowing before you negotiate.
You are above the UIF earnings ceiling. UIF is charged on the first R17 712 of monthly remuneration only, so your contribution is pinned at R177.12 a month no matter how much further the gross rises. That flat spot is exactly why this page solves the salary by iteration rather than by algebra — the deduction curve has a corner in it.

What "net" means here

Every calculator answers this differently, so here is ours. Net means the money that actually reaches your bank account: gross salary less PAYE, less UIF, less your own retirement contribution, less your medical scheme contribution, less anything else you listed. If your idea of "net" is only after PAYE and UIF, set the other fields to zero.

It is the PAYE calculator run backwards. There is no separate net-to-gross tax table. This page takes the same brackets, rebates and medical credits, guesses a gross, works out the resulting net, and narrows the guess until the net matches your target to the rand.

Medical credits cut the gross you need. The medical scheme fees tax credit comes off the tax itself, not off your income, so it is worth the same rands to every taxpayer — and it lowers the gross required for a given take-home.

Cost to company is a different number again. Your employer also pays 1% UIF and, unless their total payroll is R500 000 or less, 1% Skills Development Levy on top of your gross. When a job is advertised at a "cost to company" figure, that is the number they mean.