“You’re Not Broke, You’re Uninformed”: SA Woman Shares 4 Ways She’s Learned To Reduce Taxes
- SA business owner Sakhile Kayla Mahlangu shared tax-saving tips she learned as a young entrepreneur
- She outlined four legal ways to reduce taxable income, including retirement fund contributions and tax-free savings accounts
- Her video caught attention during tax season, with South Africans responding to her advice online
- Briefly News spoke to Sakhile Mahlangu and Briefly legal expert, Anathi Phela, to get more information on the subject
Source: Instagram
South African business owner Sakhile Kayla Mahlangu shared four tax-saving tips she wishes she learned at school. In an Instagram video posted on 10 July 2026, she explained that growing her business pushed her to understand how South Africa’s tax system works.
"This is the kind of things that should have been taught in school, but I'm only really learning about it right now...Here's how you can legally pay less in taxes in South Africa. "
4 Ways she's learned to reduce her taxes
- Retirement contributions: Putting money into a pension, provident fund or retirement annuity can lower your taxable income. For example, if you earn R20,000 and save R2,000 for retirement, SARS taxes only R18,000. You can claim up to 27.5% of your income, within the yearly limit.
- Tax-free savings accounts: A tax-free savings account lets you invest up to R46,000 a year, with all growth, interest and dividends earned staying tax-free. The lifetime contribution limit is R500,000 per person, meaning a couple could protect up to R1 million from tax.
- Medical aid credits: Medical aid contributions can reduce your tax through a medical tax credit. You can get R375 per month for yourself and your first dependent, plus R254 for each additional dependent. A family of four could save over R50,000 a year through this credit.
- Charitable donations: Donations to approved public benefit organisations can be deducted from taxable income, up to 10% of your annual income, if you have a Section 18A certificate.
Her message ended with her signature statement:
"You're not broke. You're uninformed."
Briefly News reached out to Sakhile Kayla Mahlangu to ask about the importance and need for personal finance and taxes to be taught in South African schools. She said:
“I think taxes (and personal finance more broadly) should be taught in schools because most of us leave the education system knowing how to calculate the area of a triangle, but not how to read a payslip or understand what SARS is actually taking from us and why. That gap doesn't just cause confusion, it costs people real money, missed deductions, unclaimed credits, and years of financial decisions made blind.”
She said her brand was created to tackle the lack of financial literacy among South Africans.
“I built my brand, You're Not Broke, You're Uninformed, around exactly this problem: financial literacy shouldn't be a privilege you stumble into as an adult, it should be foundational, the same way maths and English are. Personal finance should be taught in Life Skills or Life Orientation.”
Mahlangu added that learning about money from a young age would give people greater control over their financial futures.
“Everyone needs to learn the basics of personal finance because finances are the literal backbone of our lives... As Robert Kiyosaki said: ‘One of the greatest failures of the school system is not teaching its students personal finance.’ The earlier people understand how money and tax actually work, the more agency they have over their own future.”
Nedbank explains ways to cut your tax bill
Nedbank echoed some of Sakhile's statements and included other approaches that need to be taken when it comes to your tax bill.
- Understand your tax and claim deductions
- File your tax return
- Save for retirement
- Use tax-free savings accounts
- Claim work-related expenses
- Claim charitable donations
- Track business travel
- Manage tax as a self-employed taxpayer
Briefly News also spoke to legal academic Anathi Phela about the consequences of not paying tax and the difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion.
Phela explained that SARS has several legal ways to recover unpaid taxes, including deducting money directly from a person's salary, attaching property or freezing assets. He stressed that tax evasion is illegal and can carry serious consequences.
He also clarified that tax avoidance is legal and involves using lawful methods to reduce a tax bill.
“Examples include contributing to a pension fund or retirement annuity, claiming eligible medical expenses, or avoiding actions that would unnecessarily push you into a higher tax bracket, such as taking on multiple jobs. Tax evasion, on the other hand, involves deliberately misleading SARS by misrepresenting your income or submitting false information, which is a criminal offence.”
View the Instagram video below:
More Briefly News on Tax
- A South African tax expert warned taxpayers to carefully check their SARS auto-assessments, highlighting six common errors that could lead to incorrect refunds or tax payments.
- SARS introduced new travel-related tax rules requiring certain information from travellers entering or leaving South Africa, with the changes aimed at improving compliance and monitoring.
- A financial advisor explained how Bafana Bafana players may be taxed by SARS on FIFA-related earnings, breaking down the tax obligations that can apply to football income.
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Proofreading by Kelly Lippke, copy editor at Briefly.co.za.
Source: Briefly News
