What can salaried South Africans actually deduct?
For a salary earner, the honest list is short: retirement contributions (up to 27.5% of income, capped at R430,000 a year), medical tax credits, and donations to registered public benefit organisations — plus a few narrow, conditions-attached extras.
Most of the "write-offs" people hear about belong to businesses, not salaries. The ones that do exist for employees come with strict conditions and paperwork.
Why the list is short
PAYE does most of the work before a salary arrives, and the tax system gives employees far fewer levers than it gives businesses. A business deducts its costs of earning income; an employee's costs of earning a salary are, with limited exceptions, treated as personal.
That is worth knowing upfront, because the internet is full of deduction lists written for other countries or for the self-employed. Here is what actually applies to a South African salary.
The big one: retirement contributions
Contributions to a pension fund, provident fund or retirement annuity are deductible up to 27.5% of the greater of remuneration or taxable income, capped at R430,000 a year. Contributions above the limit carry forward to future years rather than being lost.
A deduction is worth your marginal rate, so this one scales with your bracket — and it dwarfs everything else on this list. The full arithmetic, including how it compares to the tax-free route, is in "RA vs TFSA — the limits, and which saves more tax at your bracket".
Medical: credits, not deductions
Medical scheme membership earns fixed monthly tax credits rather than a deduction — an amount off the tax bill itself, the same at every income. Heavy medical years can earn an additional credit on top. The amounts and formulas are in "Medical tax credits — how do they work?".
Donations — with the certificate
Donations to organisations approved under section 18A are deductible within an annual cap — but only with a section 18A certificate from the organisation. A bank statement showing the debit order is not enough; no certificate, no deduction. Not every charity qualifies, and the certificate is the proof that this one does.
The conditional ones
- Home office — only for a dedicated space used mainly for work, under conditions strict enough that most employees who work from home a few days a week do not qualify. SARS applies the tests narrowly.
- Travel — only against a travel allowance that is actually part of your package, and only with a logbook of business kilometres. Ordinary commuting to the office never counts as business travel.
- Wear-and-tear on own equipment — a personally-bought laptop or tools genuinely used for work can qualify for a wear-and-tear allowance, with proof of cost and of work use.
The myths, for the record
Things that do not reduce a salary earner's tax, despite what the group chat says: petrol for the daily commute, work clothes, home internet without a qualifying home office, laptops the employer paid for, and "business expenses" with no business attached to them.
The pattern behind the whole list: real deductions attach to specific provisions, with specific caps and specific paperwork. Anything pitched as a loophole that skips all three tends to end at assessment, not before it.
Terms used on this page
- taxable income
- The income tax is calculated on, after allowed deductions. For most salaried people it is roughly gross salary minus retirement contributions.
- marginal rate
- The tax rate on your next rand of income — the bracket the top slice of your income falls into.
Reviewed July 2026 · 2026/27 tax year figures