How many millionaires pay tax in South Africa

While reports indicate that South Africa is losing high-net-worth individuals (HNWI), the country is still seeing an increase in rand millionaires, with over 500,000 millionaires now paying taxes.

Henley & Partners’ latest Wealth Migration Report for 2024 highlights that South Africa remains one of the leading countries experiencing a net outflow of millionaires.

Henley & Partners experts noted in the report that approximately 600 HNWIs are expected to emigrate in 2025.

An HNWI, as used in these reports, is an individual with liquid investable wealth of $1 million or more, which translates to roughly R18 million at current exchange rates.

Despite this continued outflow, South Africa still retained a significant number of wealthy residents.

These residents choose to stay in the country due to its appealing lifestyle factors, such as its warm climate, picturesque landscapes, and relatively low cost of living.

According to the latest tax statistics from the National Treasury, 569,351 South Africans earn over R1 million per annum in the 2025/26 financial year pay tax.

This is a 78,675 or 16% increase in the number of millionaires who pay tax from the 490,676 reported in the previous 2024/25 financial year.

This latest figure represents 3.94% of the country’s 14.45 million registered taxpayers, an increase of 0.5% from the 3.45% of taxpayers in the previous financial year.

These figures suggest a notable rise in the number of rand millionaires despite broader economic challenges.

However, this number is expected to be even higher, with the South African Revenue Service (SARS) highlighting that many more millionaires are flying under the radar.

SARS commissioner Edward Kieswetter has estimated that around 100,000 people earning over R1 million are not registered for income tax on their system.

He said these individuals must be tracked down and that it is in the country’s best interests to “deal with those who are hiding their money, masking their economic activities.”

To track down these potential taxpayers, the 2025 National Budget allocated an additional R4 billion to SARS over the next three years, resulting in a total allocation of R7.5 billion.

However, while this growth in wealthy taxpayers is encouraging, experts have warned that the country’s tax base is still fragile.

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana highlighted this during the National Budget presentation on 12 March 2025.

He noted that this is the main reason he insisted on the one-percentage-point increase in value-added tax (VAT) over the next two years.

Godongwana said that the National Treasury thoroughly examined alternatives to raising the VAT rate and weighed up the policy trade-offs involved, including corporate and personal income tax increases.

However, he pointed out that increasing corporate or personal income tax rates would generate less revenue, potentially harming investment, job creation and economic growth.

“Corporate tax collections have declined over the last few years, an indication of falling profits and a trading environment worsened by the logistics constraints and rising electricity costs,” he said.

“Furthermore, South Africa’s corporate income tax collections are already higher than most of our peer countries.”

On the other hand, Godongwana added that increasing the personal income tax rate would reduce taxpayers’ incentives to work and save.

“Our top personal income tax rate and personal income tax collections as a percentage of GDP are far higher than most developing countries. Increasing it is, therefore, not feasible,” he said.

Dawie Roodt, chief economist at the Efficient Group, agreed with the minister and emphasised that South Africa’s tax base is already under immense strain.

Roodt said the country’s high-income earners, though few in number, contribute a disproportionate share of tax revenue.

He stressed that increasing taxes any further could drive these individuals out of the tax net, either through legal tax avoidance strategies or emigration.