R50,000 in RSA Retail Savings Bonds
Five-year rate
until 31 August 2026
Interest in a year
before tax
Exemption runs out at
R394,286 from age 65
This amount is
so a year's interest is untaxed
R50,000 at each term
| Term | Rate | Interest over the term | Taxed at 31% | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 years | 8.00%nominal | R8,000 | nothing | R8,000 |
| 3 years | 8.25%nominal | R12,375 | nothing | R12,375 |
| 5 years | 8.75%nominal | R21,875 | nothing | R21,875 |
Fixed rate bond, interest paid every six months and not reinvested. A 31% marginal rate is an illustration, not an assumption about you — the exemption is counted once per tax year, so a longer term gets more of it. The calculator takes your own bracket, your age and the inflation-linked and top-up bonds too.
Where R50,000 sits against the exemption
At the five-year fixed rate of 8.75%, the annual interest exemption of R23,800 is used up by R272,000 of capital. R50,000 is under that, so a year's interest — R4,375.00 — is entirely untaxed. The catch is that the exemption covers all local interest you earn, not only this: a bank account paying interest draws on the same allowance, and it is one allowance per person, not one per investment.
For scale on this site: a year's interest of R4,375.00 is about 0.8 months of the PMBEJD household food basket. Nothing on this page is a recommendation about what to do with R50,000.
Read next
savings
All three bonds, with the calculator
Every current rate, the rules, the break-even inflation rate and twenty-two years of history.
Read →R100,000
R100,000 invested
What it earns at each term, and which side of the tax exemption it lands on.
Read →R250,000
R250,000 invested
What it earns at each term, and which side of the tax exemption it lands on.
Read →