Transfer Duty is the tax levied on the value of any property acquired by any person by way of a transaction or in any other way. For the purpose of Transfer Duty, property means land and fixtures and includes real rights in land, rights to minerals, a share or interest in a “residential property company” or a share in a share-block company.
These are the Transfer Duty rates applied to properties acquired on or after 1 March 2017, and apply to all persons which includes Companies, Close Corporations and Trusts
| Value of Property | Rate |
| 0 – 900 000 | 0% |
| 900 001 – 1 250 000 | 3% of the value above R900 000 |
| 1 250 001 – 1 750 000 | R10 500 + 6% of the value above R 1 250 000 |
| 1 750 001 – 2 250 000 | R40 500 + 8% of the value above R 1 750 000 |
| 2 250 001 – 10 000 000 | R80 500 +11% of the value above R2 250 000 |
| 10 000 001 and above | R933 000 + 13% of the value above R10 000 000 |
Good advice is to ensure that you are using the correct rate, depending when the property was acquired.
For acquisitions
For renunciations
A Transfer Duty Declaration can be submitted to SARS in one of two ways:
Should supporting documents be required, it will be requested of the Conveyancer to upload such electronically. Once satisfied, the application will be approved. If no payment is required, the system will automatically release the receipt after approval.
Should a payment be required, the Conveyancer will make such electronically, after which the receipt will be issued.
It is advised that all parties ensure their tax affairs are in order as property transfers are used in an attempt to ensure tax compliance across all taxes. If, for example, you are not registered or you have outstanding tax returns or payments, you will be given the opportunity to correct matters with SARS. Should matters not be resolved, steps will be taken to ensure compliance and this may delay the transfer of the property. One such step that may be taken is the appointment of the Conveyancer or any other person as an agent with the instruction to pay SARS from the proceeds of the sale. Please ensure that your personal details are also correct.
Duty will need to be paid within six months from the date of acquisition. If the Transfer Duty is not paid within this period, interest calculated at 10% per annum for each completed month. A completed month is calculated as the first day from the expiry of the interest free six-month period to the date of payment.
It’s good to remember that in the case of conditional sales the period of 6 months commences from the date on which the transaction was entered into (i.e. the last date of party signature to the agreement), and not the date when the contract becomes binding upon the parties.
All Transfer Duty must be paid electronically via eFiling. In most cases a conveyancer, who acts on your behalf, would normally do this.
Following the introduction of the electronic submission of Transfer Duty declarations and the eAccount for Transfer Duty, the self-help facility on eFiling, SARS has further enhanced the Transfer Duty system with respect to refunds. SARS no longer processes manual requests for Transfer Duty refunds. Conveyancers must from now request refunds for a cancelled Transfer Duty declaration via eFiling using the eAccount management-Refund function. The eAccount function offers quicker access to credits on the account and enables the Conveyancer to:
You will need to be able to supply the following documentation Power of authority