This is how many South Africans earn more than R1 million a year

 ·6 Jun 2017

SARS and Stats SA’s 2016 tax review provides a break down of the taxable income for South Africans, and how many taxpayers earn in excess of R1 million.

The data is based on the most recent tax year (2015/16), where R1.07 trillion was collected in tax, R426 billion of which came from income tax.

According to SARS, there are 18.2 million registered individual taxpayers in South Africa, while just under 4.8 million taxpayers were assessed during the financial year.

SARS said it received 5.74 million returns by the close of tax season for non-provisional taxpayers, including 4.16 million submissions by individuals for the 2015/16 tax year.

The biggest income group among South African taxpayers is the R120,000-R350,000 band, where 2.4 million taxpayers (half of those assessed) fall into this category.

As many as 130,000 South Africans earned a taxable income of over R1 million during the tax year – just 0.7% of registered taxpayers, and 2.7% of those assessed.

Just under 5,300 taxpayers earned over R5 million in taxable income during the period.

Taxable Income Taxpayers % of assessed
R5 000 001+ 5 288 0.1%
R2 000 001 – R5 000 000 26 278 0.5%
R1 000 001 – R2 000 000 98 526 2.1%
R750 001 – R1 000 000 114 960 2.4%
R500 001 – R750 000 318 534 6.7%
R350 001 – R500 000 489 528 10.2%
R120 001 – R350 000 2 425 116 50.6%
R60 001 – R120 000 783 572 16.4%
R1 – R60 000 392 875 8.2%
<= R0 133 657 2.8%
Total 4 788 334 100.0%

While the split between men and women is fairly evenly distributed in the lower tiers of taxable income, things diverge significantly as earnings increase.

When earnings hit above R500,000, male taxpayers start outpacing female taxpayers by more than double. In the highest bracket, male taxpayers outpace female taxpayers seven-to-one.

Statistics for the 2016/17 tax year will be published in November 2017.


Read: ‘Dodgy’ R70 million tax refund for the Guptas causes drama at SARS: report

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