Extra PAYE on your bonus, and the net amount you keep.
Net bonus
—
Tax on bonus
—
Effective rate
—
Your breakdown
Updates live as you type| Step | Amount |
|---|
Why your bonus feels so much smaller than you expected
A 13th cheque is one of the few times most salaried South Africans see a single large number land in payroll, and it is also where the disappointment is sharpest. The reason is simple but counter-intuitive: a bonus is not taxed on its own. It stacks on top of the salary you have already earned, so the whole amount is taxed at your highest marginal rate, not your average rate. If your salary already pushes you into the 31 percent band, every rand of bonus is taxed at 31 percent from the first rand, with no fresh tax-free portion to soften it. This tool works out the extra PAYE the only honest way, by calculating your annual tax with the bonus included and subtracting your annual tax without it. The gap is the tax on the bonus.
How SARS layers the bonus onto your salary
South Africa runs a seven-band progressive scale on taxable income, and the bands this calculator applies start at 18 percent and climb to 45 percent at the top. Crucially, the bands are annual, and a bonus is treated as part of the same year of assessment as your salary. Your employer applies a primary rebate before charging PAYE, but that rebate is already used up against your normal salary, so it does nothing for the bonus. The marginal rate that bites is whichever band your salary plus bonus reaches. These specific rates and band edges are the figures this calculator uses for the 2025/26 year, and you should confirm the current numbers with SARS before relying on them for a tax return, because the brackets can change from one Budget to the next.
A R35,000 bonus on a R420,000 salary
Take the default inputs: a R420,000 salary and a R35,000 bonus for someone under 65. The salary alone sits in the band that taxes income above R370,500 at 31 percent, and the bonus stacks neatly inside that same band, so the entire bonus is taxed at the rates this calculator applies for that slice.
Because the whole bonus lands inside a single band, the effective rate equals the marginal rate, a tidy 31.0 percent. That is the cleanest case. If the bonus had been large enough to push part of it across the next band edge at R512,800, the top slice would have been taxed at 36 percent and the effective rate would have crept above 31 percent.
A practical move before payday
If the bonus tax stings, the legal lever is a retirement fund contribution. SARS lets you deduct contributions to a pension, provident, or retirement annuity fund up to 27.5 percent of the greater of your remuneration or taxable income, capped at R350,000 a year. Routing part of a bonus into an RA in the same tax year reduces the taxable amount the bonus is added to, so the saving comes off at your marginal rate. A common mistake is assuming the bonus has its own lower tax. It does not. Another is forgetting that a bonus can tip you into a higher band for the year even though your monthly salary never would, which is exactly what this tool is built to reveal.
Can a retirement annuity contribution cut the tax on my bonus?
Yes, within limits. If you contribute to an RA or top up your pension fund in the same year of assessment, the deductible portion lowers your taxable income, and because the bonus sits at your marginal rate, the relief is felt at that rate too. You are capped at 27.5 percent of income and R350,000 a year combined across all retirement funds, so check how much room you have left before diverting the whole bonus.
Why did my employer deduct more PAYE than this tool shows?
Employers sometimes apply the SARS directive method or annualise the bonus month, which can withhold slightly more than the true marginal cost shown here. Any over-withholding is not lost: it is reconciled when you file your return and refunded if you overpaid. This tool estimates the actual extra tax for the year rather than the cash your payroll system holds back in the bonus month.