How does the two-pot system work — and how much can you take out?
Since 1 September 2024, new retirement contributions split two ways: one-third into a savings pot you can reach before retirement, two-thirds into a retirement pot locked until you retire.
You can withdraw from the savings pot once per tax year — minimum R2,000, up to its full balance — and the withdrawal is added to your income and taxed at your marginal rate.
The two pots (and the third one nobody mentions)
Every contribution since 1 September 2024 is split automatically: one-third lands in the savings pot, two-thirds in the retirement pot. The savings pot is reachable in an emergency; the retirement pot stays locked until retirement, full stop.
There's a third pot too: everything you'd built up before 1 September 2024 sits in the vested pot, where the old rules still apply. The two-pot withdrawal rules don't touch it.
To open the system, funds moved a once-off starting amount into each savings pot: 10% of what was in the fund at 31 August 2024, capped at R30,000.
The withdrawal rules
- Once per tax year (1 March to 28 February), per fund
- Minimum withdrawal: R2,000
- Maximum: whatever is in your savings pot
- Your fund requests a tax directive from SARS before paying out
- If you owe SARS, the outstanding amount is deducted from the payout first — automatically
- Fund administration fees may also come off, depending on the fund
The tax bite — why you get less than you asked for
A savings-pot withdrawal is added to your taxable income for the year and taxed at your marginal rate — the same rate as your salary's top slice. It does not use the friendlier retirement lump-sum tables, and none of it is tax-free.
The arithmetic, plainly: someone with taxable income of R300,000 sits in the 26% bracket in 2026/27. A R10,000 withdrawal costs R2,600 in tax — R7,400 lands in the account. And a larger withdrawal can push part of itself into a higher bracket, where that part is taxed more. The calculator on this page shows exactly this for your numbers.
What it costs your future self
There's a second price that never shows on the payout statement: the growth the money would have earned. R10,000 left compounding at 10% a year is around R67,000 after twenty years. A withdrawal spends that future amount, not just the R10,000.
That's the design logic of the system in one sentence: the savings pot exists because real emergencies happen; the retirement pot is locked because retirement is certain.
At retirement
Whatever is left in the savings pot at retirement can be taken in cash (taxed under the retirement lump-sum tables at that point) or used for income. The retirement pot must be used to provide an income — that is what it was protected for.
Try it with your own numbers
Enter your annual taxable income, your savings-pot balance, and the withdrawal you have in mind. The calculator applies the 2026/27 SARS brackets to show the estimated tax, what actually lands in your account, and the rate the withdrawal was taxed at. Inputs stay on your device.
Your numbers stay on your device — nothing you type here is sent or stored. This is a generic guideline calculation, not advice. For advice, speak to a vetted, FSCA-registered planner.
Terms used on this page
- marginal rate
- The tax rate on your next rand of income — the bracket the top slice of your income falls into.
- vested pot
- Retirement savings built up before 1 September 2024. The old rules still apply to it — the two-pot withdrawal rules don't touch it.
- tax directive
- An instruction a retirement fund requests from SARS telling it exactly how much tax to hold back from a payout before paying you.
- compounding
- Growth on growth: returns earn their own returns. It is why time in the market matters more than the size of any single deposit.
Reviewed July 2026 · 2026/27 tax year figures