VAT registration checker

This checker tells you whether your business has to register for VAT, whether it may register if it chooses to, or whether it is below both thresholds. It also works out the deadline: once you are liable, you have 21 business days to apply, and missing that has a cost that surprises people. It is for small business owners, freelancers and start-ups who are growing towards the threshold, for anyone who has just signed a large contract, and for the many businesses that registered under the old R1 million threshold and may no longer need to be registered at all.

The thresholds changed on 1 April 2026. The compulsory threshold more than doubled, from R1 million to R2.3 million, and the voluntary threshold rose from R50 000 to R120 000. A great deal of advice on the internet still quotes the old figures. The checker reads the current ones from a dated rate table.

What this calculator works out and who it is for

You enter your taxable supplies over the last twelve months, any supplies you are bound by written contract to make in the next twelve months, the date on which the threshold was or will be exceeded if you know it, and whether you are already registered. The checker returns your position, compulsory, voluntary or neither, the date by which you must apply if registration is compulsory, your headroom before the compulsory threshold if it is not, and a set of warnings about the consequences.

The checker is about the registration decision, not the VAT return. It does not calculate output or input tax. Its job is to answer the question that comes first: am I in the system, and if so since when.

How the calculation works

The checker compares two figures with two thresholds. The first figure is the value of taxable supplies you have made in the past twelve months. The second is the value of taxable supplies you are obliged to make in the next twelve months under a written contract. If either exceeds the compulsory threshold of R2 300 000, registration is compulsory. The contract trigger matters: a business with R800 000 of turnover that signs a R3 million annual supply contract must register when it signs, not when the money arrives.

If neither figure exceeds the compulsory threshold but past turnover exceeds the voluntary threshold of R120 000, you may register voluntarily. Below that, a general voluntary registration is not available, although SARS allows some categories to register on other grounds.

Where registration is compulsory and you have given the date the threshold was exceeded, the checker adds 21 business days to that date, skipping weekends and the public holidays in the Public Holidays Act, and reports the date by which the application must be lodged. If that date is in the past and you are not registered, it warns you about the back-dated liability.

Taxable supplies means what the VAT Act says it means. It includes standard-rated supplies and zero-rated supplies such as exports and basic foodstuffs. It excludes exempt supplies, such as residential rent, most financial services and public road transport, and it excludes the sale of capital assets and supplies that are abnormal or temporary. A landlord with R3 million of residential rent and nothing else is not required to register, because residential rent is exempt. The checker uses the figure you enter, so get the category right before you type it.

The law behind the numbers

Section 23(1) of the Value-Added Tax Act 89 of 1991 makes every person who carries on an enterprise liable to register at the end of any month where the total value of taxable supplies made in the preceding twelve months has exceeded the threshold, or where there are reasonable grounds for believing that the total value of taxable supplies to be made in the next twelve months under a written contractual obligation will exceed it. Section 23(2) requires the application to be made within 21 days of becoming liable, which SARS applies as 21 business days. Section 23(3) allows voluntary registration where taxable supplies have exceeded the lower threshold in the past twelve months, and in certain other cases set out in the regulations, such as a business that has acquired a going concern or has incurred set-up costs.

The 2026 Budget raised the compulsory threshold from R1 million to R2.3 million and the voluntary threshold from R50 000 to R120 000 with effect from 1 April 2026. SARS has applied the new figures from that date, as its Budget 2026 FAQs record, although the amending provision was still in the Rates and Monetary Amounts and Amendment of Revenue Laws Bill when this page was written. A business that became liable under the old threshold in March 2026 may have no obligation at all from April, and registrations made only because of the old threshold can be reviewed for deregistration.

The consequence of registering late is in section 23(4) and in the way SARS applies it. You are treated as a vendor from the date you became liable, not from the date you got around to applying. Output tax is owed on everything you sold from that date. If you did not charge your customers VAT because you were not yet registered, the 15% comes out of your own pocket, since you cannot go back to customers for it, and penalties and interest are added. On R500 000 of sales that is around R65 000 of VAT you never collected.

The consequence of registering voluntarily is that you stay in the system. A voluntary vendor must remain registered for at least twelve months, must file returns on the normal cycle, must charge 15% on taxable supplies, and can only deregister on application. Voluntary registration is attractive if your customers are themselves vendors, because the VAT you charge is neutral to them and you recover the input tax on your costs. It is unattractive if your customers are members of the public, because the 15% either raises your price or comes out of your margin.

Worked example

Lindiwe runs a small events company. Her taxable supplies in the twelve months to September 2026 were R2.1 million. In September she signs a written contract with a corporate client for twelve monthly events at R250 000 each, R3 million for the year.

On past turnover alone, Lindiwe is below the compulsory threshold with R200 000 of headroom, and the checker would tell her registration is voluntary. But the contract is a written obligation to make R3 million of taxable supplies in the next twelve months, which exceeds R2.3 million. Registration became compulsory on the day she signed. She enters the signing date, 1 September 2026, and the checker gives her 21 business days, skipping Heritage Day, which lands the application deadline in the first days of October. If she had not applied by then, every event invoiced from 1 September carries VAT she did not charge.

Change the facts: no contract, turnover R2.1 million. The headline is that she may register but does not have to, with R200 000 of headroom. Since her clients are companies that claim input tax, voluntary registration costs them nothing and lets her recover the VAT on her venue and catering costs, so the checker's warning about voluntary registration being a poor fit for consumer businesses does not apply to her. Change them again: a new business with R90 000 of sales. Below both thresholds, and the checker says so, while noting the other grounds on which SARS sometimes allows registration.

What the calculator does not include

It does not decide what counts as a taxable supply. Exempt supplies, capital asset sales and abnormal supplies are excluded by the Act, and the checker relies on you to exclude them before entering the figure.

It does not calculate the VAT itself, the return, or the back-dated liability in rands. It tells you the liability exists.

It does not model the special registration categories: non-resident suppliers of electronic services, who have their own threshold; municipalities; or the rules for welfare organisations and share block companies.

It does not deal with deregistration arithmetic, including the deemed supply of assets on hand when you leave the system, which can produce a VAT bill on exit.

It does not apply the turnover tax regime for micro businesses, which is a separate election with its own threshold and interacts with VAT registration.

When to get advice

If the checker says registration is compulsory and the deadline has passed, get a tax practitioner involved before you apply, because the back-dated return and the voluntary disclosure programme both need handling carefully. If you are near the threshold and growing, speak to an accountant about the timing of invoices and contracts, because a single large written contract can move the date on which you become liable by months. If you are registered only because of the old threshold, cost out deregistration, including the exit charge on assets, before you decide.

Voluntary registration is a commercial decision with a legal lock-in. Decide it on who your customers are, how much input tax you carry, and whether you want the administrative load of returns, not on whether it makes the business look bigger.

Frequently asked questions

What is the VAT registration threshold in 2026? Registration is compulsory when taxable supplies exceed R2.3 million in any consecutive twelve months, or will exceed it in the next twelve under a written contract, from 1 April 2026. Voluntary registration is available above R120 000. Both figures were raised in the 2026 Budget from R1 million and R50 000.

How long do I have to register once I cross the threshold? 21 business days from the date you became liable. The checker works out the date for you if you enter the date the threshold was exceeded.

What happens if I register late? You are treated as a vendor from the date you became liable, and SARS assesses output tax on everything sold since then, with penalties and interest. If you did not charge customers VAT, you pay it yourself.

Does residential rent count towards the threshold? No. Residential rent is an exempt supply and is left out of taxable supplies. Commercial rent is standard-rated and counts.

Should I register voluntarily? If your customers are VAT vendors, usually yes, because the VAT is neutral to them and you recover input tax. If you sell to the public, usually no, because the 15% raises your price or cuts your margin. Either way you are locked in for at least twelve months.

I registered when the threshold was R1 million. Must I stay registered? Not necessarily. If your taxable supplies are below R2.3 million you may apply to deregister. Check the exit charge on assets on hand first.

Does a once-off large sale push me over? Not if it is the sale of a capital asset or an abnormal, temporary supply, which the Act excludes. A once-off large sale of your ordinary goods or services does count.