{"id":880785,"date":"2026-10-21T15:09:31","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T13:09:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=880785"},"modified":"2026-10-21T15:09:34","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T13:09:34","slug":"great-news-for-anyone-paying-tax-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/budget-speech\/880785\/great-news-for-anyone-paying-tax-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Great news for anyone paying tax in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana says the National Treasury is proceeding with the design of a new National Online Gambling Tax, with more details on the measure to come in 2027.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, no new general taxes or changes to the general tax or VAT regime were mentioned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS), Godongwana said that the discussion paper proposing the new online gambling tax received many submissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These submissions “generally recognised the need to address the growth of online gambling and its associated harm.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Treasury, due to the surge in online gambling and its impact on society, it has been proposed that a 20% tax be applied to gross gambling revenue from online betting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This includes interactive gambling, which would be in addition to the provincial taxes currently applied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the years, the gambling industry has evolved from traditional forms of gambling to the greater use of online gambling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This has been influenced by technological advancements and increased access to the internet and electronic communication tools. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gambling is now easily available online, accessible almost anywhere and at any time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has been widely reported that South Africans spent R1.5 trillion on gambling in 2024\/25. The figure represents gambling turnover, but does not account for payouts and winnings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This figure is reflected in gross gambling revenue (GGR), which is much smaller but still growing rapidly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the South African Reserve Bank, GGR in South Africa rose from R26.3 billion in 2015 to R74.5 billion by 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, the growth of sports betting and myriad other digital services that bypass existing restrictions has become a significant concern in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This has prompted the need for a targeted tax regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Godongwana said that consultations on the proposed tax are ongoing, focusing on the tax design and its linkages to the existing regulatory framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Treasury is also consulting on the tax’s implications for provinces and the currently regulated market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“An announcement of the final design will be made in the February 2027 Budget,” the minister said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No other tax measures mentioned<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The MTBPS is not typically a revenue-focused budget, and thus, new tax measures are not usually announced. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the speech often indicates looming tax measures to come in the 2027 Budget Speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, Godongwana indicated in the 2025 MTBPS that approximately R20 billion worth of tax measures would be necessary in 2026 if tax collections that year missed targets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately for taxpayers, the 2025\/26 tax collections were sufficient for the Treasury to nix the looming tax increases and even pass some tax relief on to them in the 2026 Budget Speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 2026 MTBPS speech, aside from work on the gambling tax, Godongwana gave no indication of tax shortfalls necessitating new tax measures in 2027.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the contrary, the Finance Minister said the revenue outlook for 2026\/27 is stronger than expected, due to higher collections from corporate tax, dividends tax and VAT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“As a result, gross tax revenue for this year has been revised upwards by R17.1 billion compared with the February estimate,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A large portion of this improvement is due to higher commodity prices, and these gains are expected
to dissipate over the medium term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, overall gross tax revenue is projected to increase from R2.14 trillion this year to R2.53 trillion in 2029\/30.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of the upward revision to revenue collections, no changes to the general tax or VAT regime were mentioned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new tax for South Africa is in the works, but general tax and VAT changes did not get a mention in the MTBPS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":812962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2112894117566968256","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2244419233045142","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18133817818683047","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13716],"tags":[25136,9194,7438],"class_list":["post-880785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-budget-speech","tag-gambling-tax","tag-mtbps","tag-vat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=880785"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":880810,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880785\/revisions\/880810"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=880785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=880785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=880785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}