2026 Draft Tax Bills

Every year, the Minister of Finance announces tax changes during the national Budget speech. However, a Budget speech on its own does not change the law — the proposals must be written up as formal bills and passed by Parliament before they become legally binding. South Africa has a well-established process for doing this: National Treasury and the South African Revenue Service (SARS) draft the bills, publish them for public comment, hold workshops with stakeholders, and then send the bills to Parliament's finance committees for further public hearings before the bills are formally introduced and voted on. The 2026 Budget was delivered on 25 February 2026, and the tax proposals announced on that day are now being converted into two separate draft bills that cover different aspects of tax law.

Virtually every South African who pays tax — whether as an individual earner, a business owner, or a company — could be affected, because the draft bills contain all the tax proposals from the 2026 Budget. The exact groups affected will depend on which specific proposals are included in the bills, but historically these annual tax bills touch on personal income tax, corporate tax, VAT (Value-Added Tax), and a range of sector-specific rules.

Businesses and tax practitioners are especially important here, because they are the stakeholders National Treasury and SARS normally invite to public workshops after the written comment period closes. Civil society organisations, academics, and industry bodies also regularly engage with this process. Parliament's Standing Committee on Finance (SCoF) — which sits in the National Assembly — and the Select Committee on Finance (SeCoF) — which sits in the National Council of Provinces — will hold their own public hearings, meaning even more South Africans will have a formal opportunity to be heard.

Two separate draft bills have been published. The first is the 2026 draft Taxation Laws Amendment Bill (TLAB), which is the main bill that actually changes the rates, thresholds, exemptions, and rules that determine how much tax people and businesses pay. This bill carries the bulk of the Budget's tax proposals. Supporting it is a Draft Explanatory Memorandum — a plain-language document that explains what each change in the TLAB is meant to achieve and why.

The second is the 2026 draft Tax Administration Laws Amendment Bill (TALAB), which deals with the administrative and procedural side of the tax system — things like how SARS collects tax, enforces compliance, handles disputes, and manages taxpayer information. This bill is supported by its own Draft Memorandum on Objects, which sets out the purpose of each proposed administrative change.

Both bills were published on 29 July 2026. Members of the public, businesses, and organisations can submit written comments by emailing National Treasury at AnnexCProposals@zatreasury.onmicrosoft.com and SARS at acollins@sars.gov.za. The deadline for submissions is Friday, 28 August 2026. After written comments are received, National Treasury and SARS will hold public workshops to discuss the feedback. Parliament's SCoF and SeCoF will then be asked to issue their own call for public comments and hold public hearings before the bills are formally introduced in Parliament.

Tax laws directly determine how much money ends up in your pocket at the end of the month, how much your business pays to government, and what goods and services cost you. Because these draft bills contain every tax proposal from the 2026 Budget, they are among the most consequential pieces of legislation published each year in South Africa.

The public comment period is a genuine opportunity for ordinary South Africans — not just big businesses or lawyers — to tell government what they think about the proposed changes before they become law. If you believe a proposal is unfair, unworkable, or will harm you or your community, this is the moment to say so in writing. Once the bills pass Parliament, the window to influence them closes.

The layered process — written comments, stakeholder workshops, and then Parliamentary hearings — also means there are multiple checkpoints where bad ideas can be caught and fixed. Understanding that this process exists, and that the deadline for written input is 28 August 2026, puts every South African in a position to participate in shaping the tax rules they will have to live under.