VAT Calculator South Africa

Add 15% VAT to a price, or take the VAT out of an amount that already includes it.

Type an amount and say which way you are going. Adding VAT is the easy one: multiply by 15%. Removing it trips people up, because the VAT inside a R115 price is R15, not R17.25. The calculator shows the amount before VAT, the VAT itself and the total, so you can copy whichever line the invoice or the VAT201 needs.

VAT calculator (15%)
What do you want to do?

Turnover heading past the threshold?

Govchain registers your company for VAT with SARS for R2 970, then files the VAT201 every period through a registered tax practitioner. You send the bank statements; we do the return.

Register for VAT
Already registered?See how VAT returns work

How to add and remove VAT

To add VAT, multiply the price by 1.15. A R1,000 job becomes R1,150 on the invoice, and the R150 is the output VAT you owe SARS.

To find the VAT inside a price that already includes it, multiply by 15 and divide by 115. On a R1,150 receipt that is R150, which leaves R1,000 before VAT. Taking 15% straight off the R1,150 would give R172.50, which is wrong and is the mistake that turns up on VAT201 verifications. Dividing the inclusive amount by 1.15 gives the exclusive amount in one step.

If you invoice from a spreadsheet, the two cells are =A1*0.15 for the VAT on an exclusive price and =A1*15/115 for the VAT inside an inclusive one. Our invoice generator does the sum per line and lays out the tax invoice for you.

When you have to register for VAT

Registration is compulsory once your taxable turnover passes R 2 300 000 in any rolling 12 months, or when you have a written contract that will take you past it in the next 12. The threshold rose from R1 million on 1 April 2026, so a business that was approaching the old line may now have room.

Below that you can register voluntarily from R 120 000 of turnover in the past 12 months. Worth doing when your customers are VAT vendors who want to claim the VAT on your invoices, or when you buy a lot of equipment and want the input VAT back. Not worth doing when you sell to the public, because the 15% either comes out of your margin or goes onto your price.

Once registered, a tax invoice over R 5 000must show the words “tax invoice”, your VAT number, the customer’s name, address and VAT number, an invoice number and date, a description and quantity, and either the VAT amount or a statement that the price includes VAT at 15%. Before you claim the VAT on a supplier’s invoice, run their number through the VAT number check.

Common questions

Did VAT go up to 15.5%?
No. The February 2025 Budget proposed 15.5% from 1 May 2025 and 16% a year later, but the increase was withdrawn in April 2025 before it took effect. VAT has been 15% since 1 April 2018.
Can I charge VAT if I am not registered?
No. Only a registered vendor may charge VAT or issue a tax invoice, and charging it without a VAT number is an offence. Below the voluntary threshold you invoice without VAT and cannot claim the VAT on your own costs.
Which items are zero-rated?
A short list of basics carries VAT at 0%: brown bread, maize meal, samp, rice, dried beans, lentils, eggs, milk, fresh fruit and vegetables, vegetable oil, tinned pilchards, and sanitary pads, among others. Exports and fuel are zero-rated too. Everything else a business sells is standard-rated at 15% unless it is exempt, such as residential rent and most financial services.

More free tools

The calculator runs in your browser and applies the standard rate of 15%. It does not know whether a supply is zero-rated or exempt; check the item against Schedule 2 of the VAT Act if in doubt. Rate and thresholds verified 21 September 2026 against the SARS VAT pages and the 2026 Budget.