· Built around the Company car fringe benefit calculator
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The perks that come with a job - a car, a travel allowance, money for meals on the road, a house, a cheap loan - are not tax-free. SARS gives each of them a value and adds it to your pay. Some are taxed hard every month and partly handed back on assessment; others are taxed exactly as they are paid. The difference is almost always a logbook. This post works each one on the SARS figures for 1 March 2026 to 28 February 2027, checks the sums against published examples, and links the CalcSA calculator for each so you can run your own numbers.
Run your own numbers: the company car
Type what your employer paid for the car and the kilometres from your logbook. The calculator shows the monthly fringe benefit payroll uses, and the taxable value left after your business kilometres on assessment.
The five perks, and how each one is taxed
- Travel allowance - you drive your own car. Payroll taxes 80% of it every month (20% if at least 80% of your driving is for work). On assessment your logbook kilometres earn a deduction at the SARS rate per km (travel allowance calculator).
- Company car - you drive the employer's car. The benefit is 3.5% of the determined value a month, or 3.25% if a maintenance plan of at least 3 years / 60 000 km came with it. Business kilometres reduce it on assessment (company car calculator).
- Subsistence allowance - meals and incidentals on a business trip. Up to R595 a day is treated as spent and tax-free when you sleep away at least one night in South Africa; R184 a day for incidentals only. Anything above is salary (subsistence allowance calculator).
- Housing from your employer. A formula on last year's pay, less a R99 000 abatement, times 17% to 19%, less any rent you pay (accommodation benefit calculator).
- A cheap or interest-free loan from your employer. The interest you do not pay, up to the SARS official rate of repo + 1%, is taxed as income (employee loan calculator).
Checked against published examples
Before publishing, CalcSA ran the same inputs through its calculators:
- Company car, R400 000 with a maintenance plan, 17 000 of 36 000 km for business: R40 494 taxable for the year - TaxTim's 2027 worked example (3.25%, fuel and R16 850 of licence and insurance paid by the employee). Our company car calculator gives R40 494.28: R156 000 less R73 667 business use, R32 946 private fuel at 173.4c and R8 893 private share of the costs. TaxTim's R13 000 a month and R10 400 for PAYE match too.
- Rate per km table for 2026/27: all nine bands match - fixed cost, fuel and maintenance per band, from R38 344 / 132.9c / 49.1c up to R237 679 / 220.1c / 126.9c, against the SARS 2027 table as reproduced by Rydoo. Our travel allowance calculator uses the same figures.
- Subsistence: R595 and R184 a day - the amounts on the SARS subsistence allowances page for the 2027 year of assessment, up from R570 and R176. Our calculator uses both.
- Official rate for staff loans: 8.25% from 1 October 2026 - SARS sets it at repo + 1%. The Reserve Bank raised repo to 7.25% from 25 September 2026, so the rate moved from 8.00% (since 1 June 2026) to 8.25% on the first day of the next month.
Not verified from a primary source. We found no published 2026/27 worked example for the travel allowance deduction or the accommodation benefit, so those two worked examples below are CalcSA's own arithmetic on the SARS method. The accommodation formula percentages (17%, 18%, 19%) and the R99 000 abatement come from the SARS Guide for Employers in respect of Fringe Benefits as read when the calculator was built; the 2026/27 guide could not be opened for this post. The 8.25% official rate follows from the SARS repo + 1% rule; the SARS Table 3 page had not yet shown it when we checked.
Worked example 1: R6 000 a month travel allowance, own car
- The allowance for the year is R72 000. Payroll adds 80% of it - R57 600 - to your taxable pay, because your business driving is under 80%.
- The car cost R450 000, so it sits in the R345 001 to R460 000 band: fixed cost R125 393 a year, fuel 173.4c and maintenance 74.0c a km.
- The rate per km: 665.4c. The fixed cost spread over 30 000 total km is 418.0c, plus 173.4c fuel and 74.0c maintenance - you pay both in full, so both count.
- The deduction: 8 000 business km x 665.4c = R53 230. Only R18 770 of the allowance stays taxable.
- Payroll taxed R57 600, the year needs only R18 770 - the R38 830 difference comes back on assessment, about R12 037 at a 31% top rate (tax refund calculator).
- Home to work is not business travel. Without a logbook the deduction is nil and the whole R72 000 is taxable.
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Worked example 2: a R450 000 company car
- Monthly value: R450 000 x 3.5% = R15 750. No maintenance plan came with the car, so the 3.5% rate applies.
- Payroll adds R12 600 a month to your pay - 80% of R15 750 - and taxes it with your salary.
- Value for the year: R189 000. On assessment your logbook takes off the business share: 8 000 of 30 000 km is R50 400, leaving R138 600 taxable.
- Pay all your own private fuel and it drops to R100 452. SARS lets you deduct 22 000 private km x 173.4c = R38 148, about R13 733 less tax at a 36% top rate.
- Licence, insurance or maintenance you pay in full also count - the private share of what you paid comes off. So does anything you pay the employer for the use of the car.
- Own car or company car? Compare this with example 1: a travel allowance on your own car, with a good logbook, often leaves far less taxable. The travel allowance calculator runs the other side of that sum.
Worked example 3: the smaller perks - a trip, a house and a loan
- Four days away at R700 a day: R420 taxed. The employer pays R2 800; SARS treats 4 x R595 = R2 380 as spent, and the R420 above that is salary (subsistence allowance calculator). Three nights away usually counts as four days.
- A day trip with no night away: tax-free only up to R184 for meals and incidentals, and only with proof of what you spent.
- A free employer-owned flat on R300 000 last year: R34 170 taxable for the year. (R300 000 - R99 000) x 17% = R34 170, or R2 847.50 a month on your payslip. Pay R1 000 a month rent and it falls to R22 170 (accommodation benefit calculator).
- An interest-free R100 000 staff loan: R8 250 taxable a year - R100 000 x 8.25%, or R687.50 a month. On R360 000 a year the extra income stays in the 26% band, so the tax is R2 145 a year, R178.75 a month (employee loan calculator).
- Owe R3 000 or less all year, or a study loan for yourself, and there is no benefit - the small-loan and study exemptions in the Seventh Schedule.
What makes the biggest difference
- Keep a logbook from 1 March. Date, where to, why, and the odometer at the start and end of each business trip. Without it, SARS allows no business kilometres - for a car or an allowance.
- Read the opening and closing odometer on the tax year's first and last day. Total kilometres drive the fixed-cost rate per km and the business share.
- Ask about the 20% PAYE rule if at least 80% of your driving is for work. Payroll then taxes only 20% of the allowance or car benefit each month, so less waits for assessment.
- Check what the perk is worth to you after tax - a perk is part of your package. The take-home pay calculator shows the monthly effect.
What these calculators leave out. Actual-cost claims for a travel allowance, foreign subsistence rates, the employee's own vehicle reimbursed at the R4.95 a km simplified rate, cars bought from associated parties, and housing from a public-sector employer or for a holiday are not built in. Payroll software may round differently. Your IRP5 and assessment are what count.
Sources
- SARS, rates per kilometre - 2027 year of assessment (PAYE-GEN-01-G03-A01 Rate per Kilometre Schedule): sars.gov.za, read 16 October 2026. Table figures checked against the copy on Rydoo, mileage South Africa, read 16 October 2026; the SARS schedule PDF itself was not opened for this post.
- SARS, subsistence allowances and advances - R595 / R184 a day for 2027, R570 / R176 for 2026: sars.gov.za, read 16 October 2026.
- SARS, Guide for Employers in respect of Fringe Benefits (PAYE-GEN-01-G02): company car 3.5% / 3.25%, PAYE on 80% or 20%, residential accommodation formula and low-interest loans: sars.gov.za (PDF); downloaded 16 October 2026 but not readable in our tools - figures as used by the CalcSA calculators.
- SARS, tables of interest rates (official rate of interest = repo + 1%): sars.gov.za, read 16 October 2026. 8.00% from 1 June 2026: RegFollower; repo raised to 7.25% on 23 September 2026: Trading Economics, both read 16 October 2026.
- Worked example, company car R400 000 at 3.25% = R40 494 taxable for the year: TaxTim, company car tax calculator (2027 tax year), read 16 October 2026.
- Tax brackets and rebates for 2026/27 used for the loan and top-rate examples: SARS, rates of tax for individuals, read 16 October 2026.
Calculators used in this post
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