South Africa Withholding tax rates
South Africa Withholding tax rates: no single figure applies. The 4 withholding taxes held run from 15% to 20%, cited to SARS, per-tax pages: Dividends Tax, in force since 22 Feb 2017. Last checked against the official source on 31 Jul 2026.
The final withholding taxes South Africa levies on payments to foreign persons - dividends, interest, royalties and payments to non-resident entertainers and sportspersons - each at its domestic statutory rate before any double-tax agreement relief. Administered by SARS.
Compare withholding tax rates across all 34 African countries →
| Current value | 15–20% across 4 withholding taxes — no single rate |
|---|---|
| In force from | 2017-02-22 |
| Official source | SARS, per-tax pages: Dividends Tax - 'The rate of Dividends Tax increased from 15% to 20% for any dividend paid on or after 22 February 2017'; Withholding Tax on Interest - 'Interest paid is taxed at a final withholding tax rate of 15%'; Withholding Tax on Royalties - 'Royalties paid is taxed at a final withholding tax rate of 15%'; Withholding Tax on foreign entertainers and sportspersons - 15% |
| Last verified | 2026-07-31 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
THERE IS NO SINGLE WITHHOLDING TAX RATE, WHICH IS WHY value IS NULL. South Africa levies four distinct withholding taxes at two different rates. A caller wanting a number must name which payment type; read withholding_rates rather than expecting a headline figure. Serving one of these as 'the' rate would be the same class of error as quoting Malta's 5% as a corporate rate. ALL RATES ARE DOMESTIC STATUTORY RATES, BEFORE TREATY RELIEF. A double-tax agreement can reduce any of them, often substantially, and whether relief is available depends on the recipient's residence, beneficial ownership and in some treaties an ownership percentage. We do NOT serve treaty rates: they are bilateral, run to thousands of country pairs, and applying one is a legal determination rather than a lookup. Exemptions also exist in domestic law - notably, dividends to South African resident companies are generally exempt from Dividends Tax. The series effective_from is 22 February 2017, the most recent date on which any of these rates changed (Dividends Tax 15% to 20%). Each rate carries its own effective date where SARS states one; the royalties page does not give a commencement date, so none is asserted for it.
Get it programmatically
curl https://afriref.dev/v1/za/withholding-tax
# $0.005 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://afriref.dev/v1/za/withholding-tax/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://afriref.dev/provenance/za/withholding-taxOther South Africa series: SARB repurchase (repo) rate · VAT standard rate · National Minimum Wage (hourly) · Public holidays · CPI inflation (headline, year-on-year) · Corporate income tax rate · Personal income tax brackets · Statutory social-insurance contributions · SARB rand exchange rates (official reference) · Prescribed rate of interest · VAT registration threshold
The same figure elsewhere: Tanzania · Togo · Tunisia · Uganda · Zambia · all 34