Do I get the medical tax credit if I joined medical aid during the year?

Yes, you get it for each month in which fees were paid, which means joining part of the way through the year still counts. For the 2026-27 tax year the credit is R376 a month for you, R376 for your first dependant (a spouse, child or other family member on your medical aid) and R254 for every further dependant. Someone on their own who joins in June and pays the fees for the nine months to February gets R3,384, and over a full year the credit comes to R4,512 for one person and R9,024 for someone who pays for themselves and a spouse.

Can I claim medical expenses on my tax return?

Yes, you list them on your tax return (the ITR12), and SARS works them into the additional medical expenses tax credit. They count if you paid them in the tax year and could not claim them back from your medical aid, gap cover or anyone else, and they include prescribed medicine and the part of a specialist’s bill your medical aid did not cover. How much they save depends on your age and income. If you are under 65 and neither you, your spouse nor your child has a disability, your bills and your fees above four times the scheme credit only start to count once together they pass 7.5 percent of your taxable income, and often they save nothing at all.

Does medical aid paid by my employer count for the tax credit?

Yes, because your employer’s share of the fees is added to your salary as a taxable benefit, which means SARS treats it as paid by you and it belongs in the fees you enter here. Your IRP5 shows the full amount, your part and your employer’s together, under code 4005, and you use that figure as it is, adding only fees you paid yourself outside the payroll. The exception is fees a former employer keeps paying after you retire from it, or after the death of a family member who worked there. Those fees are never added to your income, and they stay out of the fees you enter.

Can the medical tax credit give me a refund?

It can, but only by giving back tax you already paid during the year, such as the PAYE taken off your salary. The credits reduce the tax you owe for the year and stop at zero, and SARS does not pay out or carry forward any part that is left. Your employer must allow for the monthly credit in your PAYE when it pays your medical aid fees through the payroll, and may choose to when you pay them yourself. Any credit your PAYE did not already allow for, which includes all of the extra credit for anyone under 65, comes off your tax when SARS assesses your return, and if your tax for the year then falls below the PAYE taken off your salary, SARS refunds the difference.

Medical aid tax credit calculator

SARS takes two credits for medical costs off your tax: a fixed amount for every month you pay medical aid, and an extra credit that mainly covers medical bills you paid yourself. This calculator shows what both are worth to you in the 2026-27 tax year and how much of your tax they cover.

Your age on 28 February 2027

Use your own age, even if your spouse is 65 or older.

Do you, your spouse or your child have a disability?

NoYes, confirmed on form ITR-DD

A disability of a parent, brother, sister or other dependant does not count here.

People whose medical aid fees you pay

Count yourself if you are a member, plus each dependant whose fees you pay.

Months you paid fees

Count the months from 1 March 2026 to 28 February 2027 in which you or your employer paid fees.

Medical aid fees for the year

Include any part your employer paid, as the code 4005 total on your IRP5 does, and leave out gap cover.

Medical bills you paid yourself

Include doctor, dentist, hospital and prescribed medicine bills from the tax year that no medical aid or gap cover paid.

Taxable income for the year

Use your income after deductions such as retirement fund contributions, or enter 0 if you do not know it.

Less common situations

Tick any that apply to you

The calculator cannot work these out, so it tells you what to check.

Someone else also pays part of the medical aid fees for the same personA former employer pays my fees because I retired, or because a family member who worked there diedThe number of people on the scheme changed during the yearThe tax year ended early because of a death or insolvencyI was not a South African tax resident for the whole yearMy cover is through a restricted scheme under the Intelligence Services ActMy taxable income includes a lump sum, severance pay or a loss carried forwardA parent, brother, sister or other dependant who is not my spouse or child has a disability

Medical tax credits for the year

R9,024

Monthly medical scheme creditR376 + R376 for 2 people: R752
Medical scheme credit for the yearR752 x 12 months: R9,024
Medical aid fees above four times the creditR48,000 in fees less 4 x R9,024: R11,904
Medical bills you paid yourself: R6,000
Less 7.5 percent of taxable income7.5 percent of R450,000: -R33,750
Additional medical expenses creditNothing is left after 7.5 percent of taxable income comes off, which makes this credit R0: R0
Total medical credits: R9,024
Tax after rebatesTax on R450,000 at the 2026-27 rates, less the rebates at age 40: R82,917
Less medical scheme credit: -R9,024
Tax after medical credits: R73,893

Your employer allows for the monthly scheme credit in your PAYE when it pays your medical aid fees through the payroll. From age 65 it can also allow for the 33.3 percent credit on fees above three times the scheme credit. The rest of the extra credit, which is all of it for anyone under 65, comes off your tax when SARS assesses your return.

Rates verified against SARS on 27 September 2026, for the 2027 year of assessment. The credits shown are an estimate for you to review. Your SARS assessment decides the final credits, and a tax practitioner can confirm them for your situation.

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What each credit is worth

The monthly scheme credit

For every month you pay into a registered medical aid, which SARS calls a medical scheme, SARS takes a fixed amount off the tax you owe: R376 for you, R376 for your first dependant and R254 for each dependant after that. If you pay medical aid for yourself and two children for the whole year, the credit comes to R12,072. When the fees go through your payroll, your employer allows for this credit in your monthly PAYE, and the PAYE calculator shows what that does to a salary.

Your dependants are your spouse or permanent partner, your or your spouse’s children, a family member you are legally responsible for supporting, such as a parent, and anyone your medical aid lists as your dependant, even when they are on a different medical aid from yours. Fees you pay for a friend, or for anyone else who is not your dependant, do not count, and neither do gap cover, hospital cash plans or other health insurance.

The extra credit for medical costs

The second credit, the additional medical expenses tax credit, covers medical bills you paid yourself and medical aid fees well above the monthly credit, and it follows one of two rules depending on your age and your family.

If you are 65 or older on 28 February 2027, or you, your spouse or your child has a disability, you get 33.3 percent of your own bills plus 33.3 percent of the fees above three times your scheme credit for the year.

Everyone else adds their own bills to the fees above four times the credit, takes off 7.5 percent of their taxable income, and gets 25 percent of whatever is left, which for many people under 65 is nothing. Neither credit can take your tax below zero.

Which bills and disabilities count

Your own bills count when you paid them in the tax year and could not claim them back. They include bills from doctors, dentists, specialists, optometrists, physiotherapists and hospitals, prescribed medicine and the items on the SARS list of physical impairment and disability costs. Leave out anything your medical aid, gap cover or medical savings account paid, or would have paid if you had claimed, and medicine bought without a prescription unless it is on that SARS list.

A disability counts when a registered medical practitioner, such as your doctor, confirms on SARS form ITR-DD that the person has a moderate to severe limit on their ability to carry out everyday activities, which has lasted or is expected to last more than a year. You keep the form on file and do not send it in with your return. The 33.3 percent rule covers a disability of you, your spouse or your child, and an adult child only counts in some cases, which a tax practitioner can confirm for you.

One family worked through

This household comes from Example 19 in the SARS guide on medical tax credits, re-run at the 2026-27 amounts. A 38-year-old pays R143,000 in medical aid fees for the year for five people, none of whom has a disability, spends R24,866 on medical bills the scheme did not cover, and has a taxable income of R1,042,000.

Item	Amount
Monthly medical scheme creditR376 + R376 + 3 x R254, for 5 people	R1,514
Medical scheme credit for the yearR1,514 x 12 months	R18,168
Medical aid fees above four times the creditR143,000 in fees less 4 x R18,168	R70,328
Medical bills you paid yourself	R24,866
Less 7.5 percent of taxable income7.5 percent of R1,042,000	-R78,150
Additional medical expenses credit25 percent of R17,044, the rule for everyone else	R4,261
Total medical credits	R22,429
Tax after rebatesTax on R1,042,000 at the 2026-27 rates, less the rebates at age 38	R305,513
Less medical scheme credit	-R18,168
Less additional medical credit	-R4,261
Tax after medical credits	R283,084

Most of the family’s saving comes from the monthly credit, because 7.5 percent of their taxable income, R78,150, comes off their own bills and the fees above four times the credit before the 25 percent is worked out.

Questions people ask about medical tax credits

Do I get the medical tax credit if I joined medical aid during the year?: Yes, you get it for each month in which fees were paid, which means joining part of the way through the year still counts. For the 2026-27 tax year the credit is R376 a month for you, R376 for your first dependant (a spouse, child or other family member on your medical aid) and R254 for every further dependant. Someone on their own who joins in June and pays the fees for the nine months to February gets R3,384, and over a full year the credit comes to R4,512 for one person and R9,024 for someone who pays for themselves and a spouse.
Can I claim medical expenses on my tax return?: Yes, you list them on your tax return (the ITR12), and SARS works them into the additional medical expenses tax credit. They count if you paid them in the tax year and could not claim them back from your medical aid, gap cover or anyone else, and they include prescribed medicine and the part of a specialist’s bill your medical aid did not cover. How much they save depends on your age and income. If you are under 65 and neither you, your spouse nor your child has a disability, your bills and your fees above four times the scheme credit only start to count once together they pass 7.5 percent of your taxable income, and often they save nothing at all.
Does medical aid paid by my employer count for the tax credit?: Yes, because your employer’s share of the fees is added to your salary as a taxable benefit, which means SARS treats it as paid by you and it belongs in the fees you enter here. Your IRP5 shows the full amount, your part and your employer’s together, under code 4005, and you use that figure as it is, adding only fees you paid yourself outside the payroll. The exception is fees a former employer keeps paying after you retire from it, or after the death of a family member who worked there. Those fees are never added to your income, and they stay out of the fees you enter.
Can the medical tax credit give me a refund?: It can, but only by giving back tax you already paid during the year, such as the PAYE taken off your salary. The credits reduce the tax you owe for the year and stop at zero, and SARS does not pay out or carry forward any part that is left. Your employer must allow for the monthly credit in your PAYE when it pays your medical aid fees through the payroll, and may choose to when you pay them yourself. Any credit your PAYE did not already allow for, which includes all of the extra credit for anyone under 65, comes off your tax when SARS assesses your return, and if your tax for the year then falls below the PAYE taken off your salary, SARS refunds the difference.

SARS publishes each year’s credit amounts on its medical tax credit rates page, and the brackets and rebates behind the before-and-after tax figures are listed in our SARS tax tables. An auto assessment carries only the medical scheme data SARS receives, so costs a client paid out of pocket still need checking, which is why our guide to the SARS auto assessment treats those claims as a check before accepting.

Collecting medical-aid certificates from your ITR12 clients

This calculator works from one household’s medical-aid tax certificate and the receipts for the bills they paid themselves. A practice filing ITR12s for hundreds of clients needs that certificate from every client on medical aid before the returns are filed, and C-Suite Individual chases the clients who are slow to send it, then checks each certificate against the right client’s return and marks anything missing, so your reviewer opens a file that is already in order.

See how the free one-week pilot works