Maximum deductible from net salary under an emoluments order.
Maximum order deduction
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Net salary
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Available after deductions
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Protected for living
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Why there is no magic garnishee percentage
People search for the exact share a creditor can take from their wages, hoping for a clean number like a quarter or a third. South African law does not give one. An emoluments attachment order, the formal name for a salary garnishee, is granted by a court or authorised by a clerk, and the order must leave you enough to live on. The Magistrates' Courts Act and the case law around it require the deduction to be just and equitable and affordable, judged against your actual circumstances. So this tool does not pretend to recite a statutory percentage. Instead it shows you the structure: it works out your net pay, protects a reasonable slice of it for living costs, and treats the rest as the ceiling a court might allow.
The protected share this calculator applies is 75 percent of net pay, a planning assumption rather than a legal rule, and you should confirm any actual order against the court papers and a debt counsellor. The point is not the exact figure, it is to give you a defensible sense of whether an order being demanded of you is plausible or abusive.
From gross salary down to what a court might attach
Consider someone earning R25,000 a month, under 65, already running R3,000 of other deductions such as a personal loan or medical aid. The tool annualises the salary to apply the SARS PAYE tables, then brings the tax back to a monthly figure. On R300,000 a year the annual tax after the primary rebate this calculator applies is about R41,797, which is roughly R3,483 a month. UIF is one percent of salary capped at the monthly ceiling, here R177.12 because R25,000 sits below the ceiling. Net pay lands at R21,339.80.
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Because existing deductions reduce the available balance and the protected floor further limits the attachable share, the binding limit is the lower of those two values.
Your rights if an order looks wrong
A 2016 Constitutional Court judgment tightened the rules considerably. An emoluments attachment order now generally needs proper judicial oversight, must be obtained in the court district where you live or work, and your employer, as the garnishee, is entitled to a collection fee. If an order leaves you unable to cover rent, food, and transport, you can approach the court to have it suspended, amended, or set aside, and you can ask for it to be reconsidered when your circumstances change. Debt review under the National Credit Act is often a cleaner route, because it consolidates what you owe into one affordable, court-protected repayment.
Can my employer refuse to action a garnishee order?
An employer who receives a valid emoluments attachment order is legally obliged to deduct and pay over the amount, but it must check the order is properly issued and may charge a prescribed collection fee. If the order would breach the minimum living amount, the employer can flag it, and you can challenge it in court.
Is a garnishee order the same as a debt review deduction?
No. A garnishee, or emoluments attachment order, is imposed through a court at a creditor's request. Debt review is something you choose, run by a registered debt counsellor, who renegotiates all your debts into one reduced monthly payment and protects you from further legal action while you pay.
Does a garnishee come off before or after tax?
After. The order attaches your emoluments after PAYE and UIF have been deducted, which is why this tool calculates net pay first and only then applies the protected living share to find the attachable balance.