0.1% of South African companies pay 72% of all company income tax

South Africa’s latest tax statistics revealed that only 1,051 companies pay 72.3% of all company income tax in the country.

In other words, companies with taxable income greater than R100 million constituted 0.1% of the total number but contributed 72.2% of taxable income and 72.3% of assessed tax.

The National Treasury and the South African Revenue Service (SARS) jointly published the statistics on Tuesday, 10 December 2024.

The 2024 edition reviews tax-revenue collection and tax-return information for the 2020 to 2024 tax years and the 2019/20 to 2023/24 fiscal years.

Tax collections have increased from R113.8 billion in 1994/95 to R1.74 trillion in 2023/24, at a compounded annual growth rate of 9.9%.

In the 2023/24 fiscal year, SARS collected R2.2 trillion in gross tax revenue, R87.0 billion or 4.2% more than the prior year.

The 2023/24 fiscal year saw a sharp decline in Company Income Tax (CIT) revenue, particularly in the mining sector.

This decline was mainly due to low commodity prices, offsetting revenue gains from the elevated commodity prices over the previous two years.

The latest tax statistics revealed that 1,051 companies paid 72.3% of all company income tax in South Africa.

In 2022, 1,166,692 companies registered for tax. 287,802 made a loss, and 637,435 had no income.

There were 198,695 companies which made a profit of up to R1 million and paid R7.4 billion in company income tax.

Another 41,709 had a taxable income of R1 million to R100 million and paid R82.5 billion in tax. They accounted for 25.5% of all company income tax.

72.3% of company income tax was paid by companies with taxable incomes of more than R100 million, and 66.5% by large companies with taxable incomes of more than R200 million.

Almost 96.7% of all assessed companies with positive taxable income—from R1 to R10 million—paid only 11.3% of the tax assessed in 2022.

This illustrates the concentrated corporate sector of the South African economy and the importance of large companies in funding the country.

The image below provides an overview of the assessed companies, taxable income and tax assessed by taxable income group in 2022.

Distribution by Sector

The financial intermediation, insurance, real estate and business services sectors had the highest number of taxpayers.

These sectors accounted for 32.8% of the tax assessed for company income tax for the 2022 tax year.

Mining and quarrying ranked second at 24.4%, manufacturing third at 16.5%, and wholesale and retail trade, catering, and accommodation fourth at 12.9%.

The electricity, gas, and water sectors had the fewest taxpayers for the 2022 tax year, accounting for 1.3% of the tax assessed.