South Africa VAT rate
Value-Added Tax standard rate levied on the supply of goods and services by registered vendors and on imports, under the Value-Added Tax Act 89 of 1991 (s7(1)), administered by the South African Revenue Service. The rate is fixed by the Minister of Finance in the annual Budget and given effect by the Rates and Monetary Amounts and Amendment of Revenue Laws Act for that year.
| Current value | 15 percent |
|---|---|
| In force from | 2018-04-01 |
| Official source | SARS — Tax Rates: Value-Added Tax (page last updated 14 May 2026): 'VAT is levied at the standard rate of 15% on the supply of goods and services by registered vendors.' Statutory basis: s7(1) of the Value-Added Tax Act 89 of 1991; rate raised from 14% to 15% with effect from 1 April 2018 |
| Last verified | 2026-07-24 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
THE RATE IN FORCE IS 15%. This is the single most-misreported South African figure in 2025-2026 and many aggregators, payroll notes and AI summaries still carry 15.5% — that figure is WRONG and was NEVER IN FORCE. What actually happened: in the Budget tabled on 12 March 2025 the Minister of Finance PROPOSED raising VAT to 15.5% from 1 May 2025 and to 16% from 1 April 2026. The proposal met political and legal resistance — the DA and EFF applied to the Western Cape Division of the High Court to set aside the increase; on 24 April 2025 National Treasury announced the reversal ('Treasury on reversal of VAT increase', https://www.gov.za/news/media-statements/treasury-reversal-vat-increase-24-apr-2025), the Minister withdrew his opposition to the application, and on 27 April 2025 the High Court granted an order suspending/setting aside the increase. Because parliamentary timelines made it impossible to pass the repealing legislation before 1 May 2025, the COURT ORDER was the operative mechanism on the day; the legislative cleanup followed. SARS's own VAT rates page records it plainly: 'The rate was to increase to 15.5% from 1 May 2025 and to 16% from 1 April 2026 but this is reversed by clause 13 of the Bill introduced on 24 April 2025' — the Rates and Monetary Amounts and Amendment of Revenue Laws Bill of 2025. NEITHER the 15.5% nor the 16% step ever took legal effect for a single day, so there is no history entry for them and effective_from remains 1 April 2018 (the 14%-to-15% increase). NOT IN FORCE: 15.5%, 16%. The revised Budget tabled 21 May 2025 and Budget 2026 (25 February 2026) both left VAT at 15%; the SARS page confirming 15% was last updated 14 May 2026. South Africa also has a zero-rated schedule (Part B of Schedule 2 to the VAT Act: brown bread, maize meal, rice, vegetables, fruit, milk, eggs, dried beans, lentils, vegetable oil, canned pilchards, and — added 1 April 2019 — white bread flour, cake flour and sanitary towels; plus exports and international transport) and exempt supplies under s12 (financial services, residential rental, public transport by road/rail, educational services). VAT registration is compulsory above R1 million taxable supplies in any 12 months; voluntary registration is available from R50 000. VAT BANDS (added 2026-07-27): the country's other statutory bands are now served as structured data on this series and can be priced through /v1/answers/vat by passing the band key. We publish each band and the scope the instrument itself states; we do NOT classify a particular supply into a band, which is a legal determination.
Get it programmatically
curl https://afriref.dev/v1/za/vat
# $0.001 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://afriref.dev/v1/za/vat/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://afriref.dev/provenance/za/vatOther South Africa series: policy interest rate · minimum wage · public holidays · inflation rate (CPI) · corporate tax rate · income tax rates · official exchange rates · statutory interest rate · VAT registration threshold · withholding tax rates