Work Out The VAT

Adding VAT starts from a VAT-exclusive price. Removing VAT starts from the price on the invoice, which already includes VAT.

Your amount excludes VAT — we add it on.

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15% since 1 April 2018. Only use 14% for supplies made before that date.

The standard rate has been 15% since 1 April 2018. The 2025 Budget's proposed increases to 15.5% and 16% were withdrawn.

Do You Have To Register?

The test looks at taxable supplies in any consecutive 12-month period — not your financial year, and not your profit.

The value of standard-rated and zero-rated supplies made in the course of your enterprise. Exempt supplies and the sale of capital assets do not count.
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The compulsory threshold rose from R1 million to R2.3 million on 1 April 2026, and the voluntary threshold from R50 000 to R120 000.

Compulsory above R 2 300 000 · voluntary above R 120 000.

Your VAT201 Position

Optional. Enter a tax period's figures to see whether you owe SARS or SARS owes you.

Most accounting systems report turnover including VAT. Choose whichever matches your figures.
Only supplies you charged VAT on. Zero-rated and exempt supplies carry no output tax.
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Only VAT charged by other registered vendors, on goods and services acquired for the enterprise, and only where you hold a valid tax invoice.
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Estimates only — not tax advice. Based on the SARS VAT 404 Guide for Vendors and the SARS Budget 2026 announcements. Apportionment where you make both taxable and exempt supplies, notional input tax on second-hand goods, the domestic reverse charge on valuable metal, imports and change-in-use adjustments are not modelled. Consult a registered tax professional for your business.

VAT at 15%

R 1 500,00

Added to R 10 000,00 excluding VAT.

Excluding VAT

R 10 000,00

Including VAT

R 11 500,00

Share Of Shelf Price

13.04%

Tax fraction 15/115From 1 April 2026Category A or B

You may register voluntarily

You are under the compulsory threshold of R 2 300 000 — another R 800 000 of taxable supplies would tip you over — but you are above the R 120 000 voluntary threshold, so you may choose to register.

What The Customer Pays

The split of the VAT-inclusive price.

Detailed Calculation

Amount excluding VATR 10 000,00
VAT at 15%R 1 500,00
Amount including VATR 11 500,00
15% of the exclusive price is only 13.04% of the price the customer actually pays.

Four VAT Rules That Catch People Out

Never take 15% off a VAT-inclusive price.

Taking 15% off R115 gives R97.75, not R100. To strip VAT out you multiply by the tax fraction 15/115 — which is why VAT is 13.04% of the shelf price even though the rate is 15%.

Zero-rated and exempt are not the same thing.

Zero-rated supplies — brown bread, maize meal, fresh fruit and vegetables, paraffin, fuel levy goods, exports — are taxable at 0%, so you still claim your input tax. Exempt supplies — residential rent, financial services, local passenger transport, school fees — are outside the net entirely, and you may not claim input tax on the costs of making them. A business making only exempt supplies cannot register at all.

The threshold more than doubled on 1 April 2026.

After 17 years at R1 million, compulsory registration now only bites above R2.3 million of taxable supplies in a 12-month period, and the voluntary floor moved from R50 000 to R120 000. If you are already registered and now fall below the new line, you may deregister — but weigh it up: you lose your input tax claims and may face an exit VAT adjustment on assets on hand.

The test is any 12 months, not your financial year.

Liability arises the moment taxable supplies exceed the threshold in any consecutive 12-month period — and also the moment you sign a contract that will take you over it. You have 21 business days to apply, and SARS can hold you liable for VAT you never charged.

How Often You File

Category A or B — two-monthlyStandard allocation
Category C — monthlyTurnover over R 30 000 000
Category D — six-monthlyFarming under R 1 500 000
Category E — annualOn application
Category A ends in January, March, May, July, September and November; Category B in February, April, June, August, October and December. SARS decides which.