Capital Gains Tax Calculator South Africa

How the calculator works out your CGT

Capital gains tax is not a separate tax in South Africa. It is part of income tax, and SARS gets to the figure in a fixed order:

1. Capital gain = proceeds less base cost. Base cost is the purchase price plus the costs of buying, improving and selling the asset.
2. If the asset was your primary residence, the first R3,000,000 of the gain is disregarded.
3. All your capital gains and losses for the tax year are added together.
4. The annual exclusion of R50,000 comes off that total.
5. 40% of what is left, the taxable capital gain, is added to your taxable income.
6. The CGT is the difference between the income tax on your income with the gain and without it.

Working it out as the difference in tax, rather than multiplying by one rate, matters when the gain pushes you into a higher bracket. Part of the gain is then taxed at one rate and the rest at the next. The calculator does this with the same tax tables as our PAYE calculator, which you can see in full on the SARS tax tables page.

Worked example: selling unit trusts

Lindiwe bought unit trusts for R180,000 and paid R2,000 in platform fees on the purchase. She sells them for R420,000. Her salary gives her taxable income of R550,000 for the year, and she has no other gains or losses.

• Base cost: R180,000 + R2,000 = R182,000
• Capital gain: R420,000 less R182,000 = R238,000
• Less the annual exclusion of R50,000: net capital gain R188,000
• Taxable capital gain at 40%: R75,200
• Extra income tax on R550,000 plus R75,200: R27,072.00

That is 11.4% of her R238,000 gain. Her marginal rate with the gain added is 36%, and 40% of that is the most any rand of her gain is taxed at.

What counts as base cost

The higher your base cost, the lower your gain, so keep the paperwork from the day you buy. For an asset bought on or after 1 October 2001, SARS allows the amount you paid plus costs directly linked to buying, improving or selling it:

• transfer duty and conveyancing fees, unless you claimed them back as VAT input tax
• improvements such as an extension, a new kitchen or solar panels fixed to the building
• estate agent commission, advertising and valuation fees on the sale
• broker or platform fees on buying and selling shares

Anything you have already deducted for income tax, such as repairs on a rental property, cannot be added again. Assets owned before 1 October 2001 need a valuation date value, using the 20% of proceeds method, the market value on that date, or time apportionment. This calculator treats the purchase price you enter as the base cost, so for older assets enter the valuation date value instead.

Exclusions for 2026/27

Budget 2026 raised all four exclusions for individuals, the annual exclusion for the first time since 2017 and the primary residence exclusion for the first time since 2012. These apply to disposals in tax years starting on or after 1 March 2026:

Some gains fall outside CGT altogether: personal use assets such as your car, furniture and jewellery, retirement fund benefits, and payouts on a long-term insurance policy to the original owner.

Selling your home

Say you bought a house for R1,100,000, lived in it as your main home and sold it for R4,600,000, paying R230,000 in agent's commission. The gain is R3,270,000. The primary residence exclusion removes R3,000,000, and after the annual exclusion the taxable capital gain is R88,000. With other taxable income of R720,000 the CGT comes to R34,320.00. Without the exclusion, if the same house had been a holiday home, the CGT would be R529,916.00.

The calculator assumes the property was your home for the whole time you owned it. If you let it out for some of those years or ran a business from part of it, ask a tax practitioner how much of the exclusion still applies before you rely on the figure. Buying the house cost transfer duty, which forms part of base cost; our transfer duty calculator shows that figure if you need to reconstruct it.

CGT on crypto assets

SARS does not have a special regime for crypto. What matters is how you hold it: as an investment, or as stock you trade. Frequent buying and selling with the aim of making a profit is taxed as ordinary income, which means the whole profit is taxed at your marginal rate of up to 45%. Crypto held for the long term falls under CGT, and this calculator applies. An exchange counts as a disposal, so swapping one coin for another can create a gain or loss even though no rand changed hands. Keep the rand value of every purchase and swap, because that value becomes your base cost.

CGT on a R395,500 gain at different income levels

The same gain costs very different amounts of tax depending on your other income. This table uses the gain from your calculation above, the annual exclusion and the 40% inclusion rate, for someone under 65.

If you can choose when to sell, splitting a large disposal across two tax years gives you two annual exclusions and may keep more of the gain in a lower bracket. Selling in a year with lower income, such as the first year of retirement, has the same effect.

Companies and trusts

Companies and trusts other than special trusts include 80% of a net capital gain and get no annual exclusion, which works out to 21.6% for a company and 36% for a trust. This calculator does not cover them; for a Pty Ltd, the company tax calculator is the better starting point.

Declaring the gain

Capital gains and losses go on your ITR12 return for the tax year in which you sold, and SARS assesses the CGT with the rest of your income tax. There is no separate payment at the time of sale. If you are a provisional taxpayer, add the taxable capital gain to your estimate for the period of the sale; the provisional tax calculator helps with the payment. When you give an asset away instead of selling it, SARS treats it as sold at market value for CGT, and donations tax may apply as well, which the donations tax calculator covers.