Johannesburg

Salary from a foreign employer or fees from foreign clients

Taxed18%–45% progressive (2026/27 tax year)

Pay for work physically done in South Africa is South African-source income, wherever the employer is based, the contract was signed or the salary is paid, so non-residents owe tax on it under domestic law. South Africa's tax treaties generally remove that tax for an employee who is present no more than 183 days in any 12-month period, is paid by an employer that is not South African resident, and whose pay is not borne by a South African permanent establishment. Once you pass 183 days, or if your home country has no treaty with South Africa, the salary is taxable from the first day worked there. A foreign employer does not deduct PAYE, so you register with SARS, pay provisional tax in two instalments (within six months of 1 March and by the end of February) and file a return. Freelancers working from South Africa face the same source principle; turnover tax for micro businesses is closed to individuals who earn more than 20% of receipts from professional services such as IT, consulting, journalism, translation or engineering. The R1.25 million foreign employment income exemption only helps South African residents who work abroad, not remote work done in South Africa. UIF (1% employee plus 1% employer) is collected through employers' payroll; how it applies to a foreign employer with no South African registration was not confirmed here. Residents get a credit for foreign tax paid on foreign income.

On the nomad visa

The remote work visa, a visitor's visa under section 11(1)(b)(iv) of the Immigration Act (current rules effective 9 October 2024), needs an employment contract with a foreign employer and a gross salary of at least R650,796 a year, and is issued for more than 3 months and up to 3 years. It has no tax regime of its own. Holders who are tax resident in a treaty country must register with SARS once they spend more than 183 days in any 12-month period, after which South Africa can tax all pay for days worked there; below that, the treaty usually leaves the salary to the home country. Holders from a non-treaty country must register from the start, because the salary is taxable from day one. SARS lists immigration status among the ordinary-residence factors, so a temporary visitor's visa with a home kept elsewhere points to non-residence, and foreign investment income then stays untaxed until the physical presence test is met after more than five years.

Dividends, interest, gains, rent and pensions from abroad

Not taxedNone while non-resident; once resident, 18%–45% on interest and rent, up to 18% on capital gains and up to 20% on foreign dividends

Non-residents are taxed only on South African-source income, so foreign dividends, interest, rent, capital gains and pensions are untaxed until you become resident (see residency). South African investments are taxed anyway: local dividends carry 20% dividends tax withheld at source; South African interest is exempt for a non-resident who was present no more than 183 days in the 12 months before it is paid; rent from South African property is taxed, and when a non-resident individual sells South African property for more than R2 million the buyer withholds 7.5% of the price against the capital gains tax. Once resident, worldwide income is taxed: foreign interest and rent at 18%–45% (the R23,800 interest exemption, R34,500 from age 65, covers only South African interest); foreign dividends on holdings under 10% at an effective rate of at most 20%; and 40% of net capital gains is added to income (an effective 18% at most) after a R50,000 annual exclusion. Foreign pensions, lump sums and annuities for past employment outside South Africa are exempt under section 10(1)(gC)(ii), as are payments from another country's social security system. The 2025 draft bill proposed deleting the foreign-pension exemption from 1 March 2026, but the gazetted Taxation Laws Amendment Act 5 of 2026 does not contain that deletion; check before relying on it.

Net wealth and inheritance

No wealth taxInheritance tax applies

South Africa has no net wealth tax, but it has estate duty: 20% on the first R30 million of the dutiable estate and 25% above that, after a R3.5 million deduction, with bequests to a surviving spouse deductible. If you were ordinarily resident at death it covers worldwide assets, although foreign assets acquired before you first became ordinarily resident are deductible; otherwise only South African property is caught. Someone resident only under the physical presence test counts as non-resident for estate duty. Death and ceasing to be resident also trigger a capital gains deemed disposal at market value. Residents pay donations tax of 20% (25% once cumulative donations pass R30 million), with the first R150,000 a year exempt from 1 March 2026. Buying property costs transfer duty of 0% up to R1,210,000, rising in steps to 13% above R13,310,000. Municipalities levy annual property rates on the valuation-roll value of property, at locally set rates. Share transfers pay 0.25% securities transfer tax. Up to R3 million of the gain on your primary residence is excluded from capital gains tax.

Tax resident after

91 days a year

Top income tax rate

45%

When you become tax resident

There is no simple 183-day test. You are resident if you are ordinarily resident, meaning South Africa is your real home, the country you would naturally return to (SARS weighs your intention, settled home, family, business ties, immigration status and permit conditions), or if you meet the physical presence test: more than 91 days in the current tax year (1 March to the end of February), more than 91 days in each of the five previous tax years, and more than 915 days in total across those five years. Any part of a day counts, but transit between two other countries does not. Under that test you become resident only from the first day of the sixth year, and you stop being resident after 330 continuous full days abroad. If a tax treaty's tie-breaker makes you resident only of the other country, you are not resident in South Africa. A remote-work-visa holder who keeps a home elsewhere is therefore normally non-resident for at least the first five years; someone who moves to make South Africa their home can be resident from arrival.

Top income tax rate

45% on taxable income above R1,878,600 in the 2026/27 tax year (1 March 2026 to 28 February 2027). The 2026 Budget raised the brackets for inflation after two years without relief. Rebates mean no tax is due below R99,000 of taxable income under age 65 (R153,250 from 65).