One in five taxpayers paid 77% of South Africa's income tax

77%.

That is the share of South Africa's income tax paid by the top fifth of taxpayers in the 2024 tax year (SARS Tax Statistics 2025). They are the 19.6% of assessed people who earn more than R500,000 a year in taxable income. The bottom 65% paid under 10%.

So who pays for roads, schools, clinics and grants? Treasury has a word for it. In the 2026 Budget Review it says our system relies heavily on a "narrow tax base" (the people and companies who pay tax are few). The charts below show how narrow.

How many people pay tax in South Africa?

Fewer than you think. SARS assessed 7.7 million individuals for the 2024 tax year. The country has about 63.1 million people (Stats SA, mid-2025). That is roughly 12 in every 100, or about 1 in 8.

12%88%

Assessed for income tax	12	12%
Not assessed	88	88%
South Africans	100	100%

Source: SARS and National Treasury, Tax Statistics 2025 (7,712,217 individuals, 2024 tax year) and Stats SA (population, mid-2025). Being assessed does not mean you owe tax. Treasury expects 8.3 million people to owe income tax in 2026/27, about 13 in 100.

Before you say "that cannot be right", about 26.2 million people are on SARS's income tax register (March 2025). Most earn too little to owe anything or are not expected to file. Even among those assessed, many owe nothing, because SARS now assesses some people automatically.

Who pays the most tax in South Africa?

The top fifth. Look at the two columns on the right of SARS's table and notice how they stop matching the first column.

Source: SARS and National Treasury, Tax Statistics 2025. Taxpayer numbers and rand amounts are worked out from SARS's percentages, 7,712,217 assessed taxpayers and R563.3 billion assessed.

Photo: Aleph500Adam / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

77%13%10%

Earned over R500,000 (19.6% of taxpayers)	77.0%	77%
Earned R350,001 to R500,000	13.4%	13%
Earned up to R350,000 (65.4% of taxpayers)	9.6%	10%
All income tax assessed	100.0%	100%

Source: SARS and National Treasury, Tax Statistics 2025. Taxable income groups. Shares are of tax assessed.

SARS assessed R563.3 billion of income tax for that year. Seventy-seven percent of it is about R434 billion, from about 1.5 million people. And these are only the people who get assessed.

What about people who earn over R1 million?

Treasury's Budget Review estimates that about 645,000 people will earn over R1 million in 2026/27. It expects them to pay R422 billion, which is 49.9% of all income tax. They are 7.7% of taxpayers. That is about 1 in every 98 people in the country.

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The full table, below, is why Treasury says the top 13% of taxpayers are expected to pay over 60% of personal income tax.

Source: National Treasury, 2026 Budget Review, Table 4.5 (Treasury estimates, with the lower bands added together). Another 5.9 million people on the system earn below the R99,000 threshold and pay nothing.

Do companies carry the same load?

They do, and the gap is wilder. SARS assessed about 1.2 million companies for the 2023 tax year. More than half (54.0%) declared zero taxable income. Another 24.3% declared a loss.

66%31%

Taxable income over R100 million (0.1% of companies)	66.4%	66%
Taxable income R1 million to R100 million	30.9%	31%
Taxable income up to R1 million	2.6%	3%
All company income tax assessed	99.9%	100%

Source: SARS and National Treasury, Tax Statistics 2025. Shares of tax assessed, as printed (they add up to 99.9% because of rounding).

Companies that made over R100 million were a tiny sliver of the total, yet they paid two rand in every three.

Where does the R2 trillion actually come from?

SARS collected R2.01 trillion in net tax in 2025/26, passing R2 trillion for the first time (SARS Annual Report 2025/26). Gross collections were R2.47 trillion, and R458 billion went back out in refunds.

40%25%17%12%

Personal income tax	39.5%	40%
VAT	24.9%	25%
Company tax	17.4%	17%
Fuel levy, customs and excise	11.9%	12%
Everything else	6.3%	6%
Net tax revenue	100.0%	100%

Source: SARS Annual Report 2025/26. Fuel levy 4.7%, customs 4.1%, excise 3.1%. Everything else includes dividends tax, property tax and the skills levy.

Personal income tax and company tax together make up 56.9% of everything SARS collects.

Photo: Ruby D-Brown / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

But doesn't everyone pay tax?

Yes, and that matters. Everyone who buys fuel, a cooldrink or a pack of cigarettes pays VAT, fuel levy, excise or customs. Those four add up to 36.8% of revenue. A person who never pays a cent of income tax still pays tax.

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But the 2018 VAT Panel estimated that the top four income groups, out of ten, account for over 75% of VAT. Treasury repeats that in its 2026 Budget Review. Even the taxes on spending lean on people with more money.

How many people depend on grants?

Treasury expects about 26.5 million grant recipients in 2026/27. Of those, 8.2 million get the R370 Social Relief of Distress grant. Treasury expects 8.3 million people to owe income tax. So for every person who pays income tax, there are about 3 grant payments (many of them child grants).

One caution. These are recipients, not 26 million separate adults. About 12.6 million are child support grants paid for children, and one person can get more than one grant. The pressure comes from the jobs side. Only 16.7 million people have a job, and 8.5 million are looking for one (Stats SA, April to June 2026). Jobs are where income tax comes from. We showed how thin the R370 grant already is in our story on the frozen grant.

63.1mAll South Africans

26.5mGrant recipients

16.7mHave a job

8.3mExpected to owe income tax

1.5mPay 77% of all income tax

All South Africans	63.1m
Grant recipients	26.5m
Have a job	16.7m
Expected to owe income tax	8.3m
Pay 77% of all income tax	1.5m

Sources: Stats SA (population, mid-2025, and jobs, Q2 2026), National Treasury 2026 Budget Review (grants and income taxpayers, 2026/27 estimates). SARS Tax Statistics 2025 (the 1.5 million taxpayers earning over R500,000 who paid 77% of income tax, 2024 tax year). Grant figures count recipients, and 12.6 million are child support grants.

Only about half of the people who have a job are expected to owe income tax. That is 8.3 million of 16.7 million.

Why do people say this is not sustainable?

Treasury says the system "relies heavily" on a narrow base. In rand, it looks like this.

Treasury expects the roughly 645,000 people above R1 million to pay an average of about R654,000 each. Suppose just 1 in 10 of them left the country or cut their income. That is about 64,500 people and about R42 billion a year gone. Now look at the 4.75 million taxpayers earning under R350,000. Treasury expects them to pay R79.3 billion in total. The R42 billion would wipe out more than half of that.

Treasury has not said this will happen. But a base this small has one weak point. The people who fill it are mobile, and the people it supports keep growing in number. Grant recipients were 26.3 million in 2025/26 and Treasury projects 26.5 million next year. SARS's own annual report lists a growing tax gap as a strategic risk.

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Photo: Nakengtsapoho / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

How much does one top earner pay compared with the bottom?

Take Treasury's expected top band. Divide the R282.6 billion by the roughly 268,000 people over R1.5 million. You get about R1.06 million each a year, or about R88,000 a month. Now the lowest taxed band (R99,000 to R150,000). It is expected to pay R14.5 billion across about 2.08 million people. That is about R6,960 each a year, or about R580 a month.

One person in the top band pays about 150 times more than one person in the bottom band. And the budget leans on about 268,000 of them.