SA Trader Tax Manager

Income Business Planning Journey

Provisional tax

Current structure

Monthly income — prop payouts & P&L

Income breakdown — this tax year

Challenge performance

Prop firm payouts are taxed when received. Route to personal (marginal rate), company (SBC rate), or defer (left in prop firm — not yet taxable).

Log a payout

Prop firm

Date

Currency

Amount (foreign)

SARS exchange rate

ZAR amount (auto)

Destination

Notes

Payout history

Log monthly P&L

Month

P&L (ZAR)

Broker / account

P&L history

Payslip details — annual

Gross salary (R/year)

PAYE deducted (R/year)

Provident/RA deduction (R/year)

Medical aid credits (R/month)

Log a challenge

Prop firm

Challenge type

Account size (USD)

Fee paid (ZAR)

Date

Result

Challenge fees are fully deductible against trading income regardless of result. Pass or fail — always claim them.

By prop firm

Challenge log

Track your total financial position — assets minus liabilities. Update monthly for an honest picture of where you are.

Assets

Cash & savings (R)

TFSA balance (R)

RA / pension fund (R)

Other investments (R)

Property / bond value (R)

Vehicle value (R)

HoldCo / company equity (R)

Other assets (R)

Liabilities

SARS tax reserve needed (R)

Home loan outstanding (R)

Vehicle finance (R)

Credit cards / overdraft (R)

Director loan account (R)

Other liabilities (R)

Include your SARS tax reserve — the portion of earnings you must keep aside for provisional tax payments.

Net worth breakdown

Company details

Company name

Status

Financial year-end

Director salary (R/year)

Director salary of R95,750/year falls entirely in the SBC 0% band — the company pays no tax on that amount, and you receive it as income using your personal primary rebate (R17,820).

Annual summary

Add monthly company entry

Month

Income (R)

Expenses (R)

Net profit (R)

Company P&L history

This calculator uses your actual employment salary to determine when a PTY Ltd saves more tax than it costs to run. Unlike generic advice, it accounts for your current marginal rate.

Salary-aware tipping point calculator

Monthly trading income R 15,000/mo

Annual company running costs R 3,000/yr

Tax cost crossover

SBC tax rates — 2026/27

First R95,750 of taxable income
Sweet spot: director salary = R95,750, company pays R0 on that portion

R95,751 – R365,000
vs 36% personal — saving 29c per rand

21%

R365,001 – R550,000
vs 39–41% personal — still meaningful saving

27%

Above R550,000
vs 41–45% personal — still saving, but smaller margin

Dividend vs salary optimizer

Annual company profit (R)

Director salary (R/year)

Personal marginal rate (%)

Declare own company dividend

Date

Company

Gross dividend (R)

DWT 20% (R)

Net to you (R)

Notes

Own dividend history

Log external dividend

Date

Company / ETF

Type

Gross (R)

Tax withheld (R)

Net (R)

External history

Inter-company dividends between SA resident companies: zero DWT. Full profit moves from TradeCo to HoldCo tax-free — 20% DWT only when extracted to you personally.

Log inter-company dividend

Date

From (TradeCo)

To (HoldCo)

Amount (R)

Inter-company history

All dividend events

DWT summary for accountant

DWT remitted to SARS by last day of month following payment. File DTR01 and DTR02 returns.

A HoldCo lets TradeCo move after-tax profits at zero DWT. The 20% DWT is only triggered when cash finally leaves the corporate structure to you personally — so profits compound undiminished until you need them.

HoldCo setup

HoldCo name

Accumulated balance in HoldCo (R)

Assumed annual growth rate (%)

Projection years

Setup economics

Extract now vs accumulate in HoldCo

Compounding projection

Director salary break-even — salary-aware

Compares total accessible net wealth over time under both routes. The retention rate — what fraction you genuinely leave inside the corporate structure — is the deciding variable. If you extract everything annually, HoldCo never wins. If you compound most of it, HoldCo wins decisively.

Model inputs

Annual company profit R 1,000,000

Retention rate (% kept in structure) 60%

Investment growth rate (%/year) 10%

Projection horizon (years) 10 years

Net wealth comparison over time

Annual cash flow — side by side

Decision analysis

Option 4 — voluntary restructuring before the threshold. The only hard rule from Section 12E: HoldCo registration date must fall after TradeCo's last SBC financial year-end. Zero overlap — not even one day.

Section 12E transition timeline

Transition readiness — 7-step checklist

Your switch trigger — based on current run rate

Keep receipts for every item. Challenge fees, platform subs, internet (portion), home office, education, and bank fees are all claimable.

Add expense

Date

Expense log

Define each recurring expense once. At the start of each month, click Preview for month to pre-fill all active templates. Review the list, adjust any amounts that changed, then confirm. Entries land in the log as normal individual items — fully editable and removable, with a small ↺ badge so you know where they came from.

Add recurring template

Generate entries for a month

Month

Personal tax estimate — 2026/27

Employment salary (R)

Prop firm payouts to self (R)

Personal trading P&L (R)

Deductible expenses (R)

RA contributions (R)

PAYE already paid (R)

SBC tax estimate — company

Annual trading profit (R)

Director salary deductible (R)

Company expenses (R)

At your 36% marginal rate, every R1 contributed to an RA saves you 36c immediately. This is a guaranteed, risk-free 36% return on day one — no investment does better.

Your RA position

Annual income (salary + trading) (R)

Current annual RA contribution (R)

Marginal rate (%)

Extra contribution optimizer

Extra monthly contribution R 0/mo

All growth inside a TFSA is tax-free forever — no CGT, no dividends tax, no income tax on returns. This is your most powerful long-term wealth tool after the RA.

Your TFSA position

Current TFSA balance (R)

Monthly contribution (R)

Assumed growth rate (%/yr)

10-year TFSA vs taxable account projection

Monthly cash flow inputs

Monthly expenses (R)

Current savings / emergency fund (R)

Tax set aside so far (R)

What happens if trading goes flat for several months? This shows provisional tax obligations and cash drain with zero trading income.

Stress scenario inputs

Flat trading months ahead 6 months

Monthly living expenses R 20,000/mo

Month-by-month cash drain

Provisional tax impact

Compliance checklist

Key SARS obligations for traders

• Register as provisional taxpayer as soon as you receive any trading income outside employment

• File IRP6 (1st provisional) by 31 August each year — estimate full-year income

• File IRP6 (2nd provisional) by 28 February each year — based on actual income

• 80% safe harbour: if your 2nd provisional payment covers 80% of final liability, no interest charges

• Foreign income must be declared in full on ITR12 — there is no minimum threshold

• Use SARS daily average exchange rate — not your bank rate — for all foreign amounts

• Company tax: ITR14 due 6 months after financial year-end. SBC qualification: <R20m turnover, no SBC shareholders

The two-pot system (effective 1 September 2024) splits new retirement contributions: 1/3 into a savings pot (accessible once per year) and 2/3 into a retirement pot (locked until 55). Your existing balance became a vested component — untouched.

Your retirement fund details

Monthly provident contribution (R)

Date of birth

Vested component (pre-Sep 2024) (R)

Annual growth rate (%)

Savings pot current balance (R)

Retirement pot current balance (R)

Two-pot summary

Projection to age 55

Personal filing dates

Company filing dates

Per-payout documents

Per-expense documents

Annual documents

Company documents

Run through this checklist at the end of each month. Keeping records current is far easier than reconstructing them before filing.

Every month — Week 1

Payouts

Expenses

Every month — Week 2–4

Company (if PTY Ltd active)

Tax & planning

Quarterly tasks

Annual tasks

What your accountant needs from you

By currency

SARS & SARB obligations

Upload your bank statement CSV — the tool matches every credit against your logged payouts and flags anything missing on either side. Supports FNB, Nedbank, Standard Bank and Absa exports (auto-detected). Use your bank's "Download transactions" or "Export CSV" feature for the period you want to check.

Upload bank statement

From date (filter)

To date (filter)

Min credit amount (R)

\U0001f4c2 Choose CSV file No file selected

Profile

Your name

Trading entity

Employment status

Tax year management

Personal income tax brackets

Update after the February budget speech when SARS announces new rates. Every calculation in the tool — dashboard, tipping point, RA optimizer, stress test — recalculates automatically.

Live preview — tax on

Tax rebates

Primary rebate — all taxpayers (R)

Secondary rebate — age 65+ (R)

Tertiary rebate — age 75+ (R)

SBC company tax brackets

DWT & annual limits

Dividends withholding tax

Personal dividend rate (%)

Inter-company dividend rate (%)

TFSA & RA limits

TFSA annual limit (R)

TFSA lifetime limit (R)

RA deduction cap — % of income

RA rand cap (R)

Share with accountant

Active share links

SA Trader Tax Manager

Provisional tax

Current structure

Monthly income — prop payouts & P&L

Income breakdown — this tax year

Challenge performance

Log a payout

Payout history

Log monthly P&L

P&L history

Payslip details — annual

Tax calculation

Log a challenge

By prop firm

Challenge log

Assets

Liabilities

Net worth breakdown

Company details

Annual summary

Add monthly company entry

Company P&L history

Salary-aware tipping point calculator

Tax cost crossover

SBC tax rates — 2026/27

Dividend vs salary optimizer

Declare own company dividend

Own dividend history

Log external dividend

External history

Log inter-company dividend

Inter-company history

All dividend events

DWT summary for accountant

HoldCo setup

Setup economics

Extract now vs accumulate in HoldCo

Compounding projection

Director salary break-even — salary-aware

Model inputs

Net wealth comparison over time

Annual cash flow — side by side

Decision analysis

Section 12E transition timeline

Transition readiness — 7-step checklist

Your switch trigger — based on current run rate

Add expense

Expense log

Add recurring template

Generate entries for a month

Personal tax estimate — 2026/27

SBC tax estimate — company

Your RA position

Extra contribution optimizer

Your TFSA position

10-year TFSA vs taxable account projection

Monthly cash flow inputs

Stress scenario inputs

Month-by-month cash drain

Provisional tax impact

Compliance checklist

Key SARS obligations for traders

Your retirement fund details

Two-pot summary

Projection to age 55

Personal filing dates

Company filing dates

Per-payout documents

Per-expense documents

Annual documents

Company documents

Every month — Week 1

Payouts

Expenses

Every month — Week 2–4

Company (if PTY Ltd active)

Tax & planning

Quarterly tasks