Rental income tax

The fast answer: rental income is taxed like any other income, but only after you subtract the expenses of earning it. Enter your annual rent and the running costs of the property below, and the calculator nets them to a taxable rental profit (or a loss), applies your ownership share, and then, if you add your other income, shows the extra tax that profit adds at your marginal rate, on the SARS rate tables for the year you choose. It is the reasoning, line by line, not a guess.

Open the rental income tax calculator →

What the calculator works out

Letting a property is a trade for tax. Your rent is gross income, and the costs you incur to earn it are deductible under section 11(a) read with section 23(g) of the Income Tax Act, as long as they are actually incurred in producing that rental income and are not capital or private in nature. The calculator does three things:

1. Totals your deductible expenses across the categories SARS recognises: bond interest, rates and taxes, levies, insurance, agent commission and repairs, plus anything else that qualifies.
2. Nets rent against expenses to a taxable rental profit or loss, then applies your ownership share so a co-owner only sees their share.
3. Prices the tax effect, if you enter your other taxable income: rental profit stacks on top of your salary and is taxed at your marginal rate, so the calculator adds it to your other income and reports the difference in tax. Your rate comes from the SARS rate tables for the year you choose.

Which expenses you can deduct

The rule of thumb is the cost of earning the rent, not the cost of owning the asset:

• Bond interest, never the bond capital. Only the interest portion of your monthly repayment is deductible.
• Rates and taxes, levies, insurance on the let property, and agent commission on collecting the rent.
• Repairs that restore the property, not improvements that better it. A repaired geyser is deductible; a new patio is capital.

Improvements and the purchase price are capital and belong to the base cost for capital gains tax when you sell, not to this year's rental deduction.

Worked example (show the workings)

Naledi lets a flat for the full 2026 year of assessment and owns it outright (100%). Her salary (other taxable income) is R400,000. The flat earned R180,000 in rent, and she paid:

Expense	Amount
Bond interest	R90,000
Rates and taxes	R14,000
Levies	R9,000
Insurance	R4,000
Agent commission	R14,400
Repairs	R6,000
Total deductible expenses	R137,400

Taxable rental profit: R180,000 rent less R137,400 expenses = R42,600.

Extra tax: stacked on her R400,000 salary, that R42,600 falls in her 31% marginal band (the 2026 SARS rate tables), so her tax rises from R69,272 to R82,478. The extra tax is R13,206, exactly what the calculator reports in the "Extra tax at your marginal rate" row. Because her taxable income is over the tax threshold and her rental profit is over R30,000, the calculator also flags that she may be a provisional taxpayer.

When a rental loss is ring-fenced

If your expenses beat your rent, you have a rental loss. Ordinarily that loss reduces your other income and cuts your tax, and the calculator shows that saving in the "Tax reduced, if the loss is not ring-fenced" row. But section 20A can ring-fence the loss of a higher earner whose letting looks like a persistent loss-maker: the loss is then quarantined, not deducted against your salary this year, and carried forward against future profit from the same property. The standalone calculator assumes the loss is deductible now; the ring-fencing election is a decision you make in the full workspace.

Are you a provisional taxpayer?

Under the Fourth Schedule, a salaried person who also earns rental income can be pulled into the provisional-tax net. As a guide, two limbs both have to be met, absent a business: your taxable income exceeds the tax threshold, and your income from sources like interest, dividends and rental of fixed property exceeds R30,000. When both hold, the calculator notes that you may need to register and file an IRP6. It is a prompt to check, not a determination.