Two-Pot Withdrawal Calculator
See exactly how much of your savings-pot withdrawal SARS will take, what your fund deducts as an admin fee, and what actually lands in your bank account. Built for the South African two-pot retirement system that started on 1 September 2024.
Savings pot
1/3
Of every new contribution
Retirement pot
2/3
Locked until age 55
Seed cap
R30k
10% of vested, max R30,000
Min withdrawal
R2k
Once per tax year
Step 1
Your savings-pot balance
Total pension / provident / RA balance the day before two-pot started
Your portion + your employer's portion combined
Default 9% — typical balanced fund. Use 0% for a conservative cash-flow view.
Period modelled
1 Sept 2024 → today (23 months)
Step 2
Your withdrawal
Minimum R 2 000,00 per claim · once per tax year
Used to find your marginal tax bracket
Enter a withdrawal amount and your annual salary to see how much you'll actually receive after SARS tax and admin fees.
Data: Effective 1 September 2023 · Pension Funds Act s37D · SARS 2026/27 tax tables · FSCA two-pot circular · See methodology
How the two-pot system actually works
The two-pot retirement system was launched in South Africa on 1 September 2024 to fix a long-standing problem: members who lost their job or hit a financial emergency had either to resign just to access their pension (collapsing their long-term savings) or to take on expensive short-term debt. The new structure carves out a small, ring-fenced “savings pot” that you can dip into once per tax year while keeping the bulk of your retirement money locked.
From day one of the system, every rand you and your employer contribute to a pension, provident or retirement-annuity fund is split. One-third goes into the savings component — accessible by claim once a tax year, with a R2,000 minimum. Two-thirds goes into the retirement component — completely locked until the official retirement age of 55. Your old fund balance, the vested component, keeps the pre-2024 rules and is not touchable while you remain employed.
To make sure the new savings pot wasn't empty for years, the legislation mandated a one-off “seed” transfer on 1 September 2024. Each member had 10% of their vested balance — capped at R30,000 — moved into the savings pot on day one. This is why somebody with R150,000 vested got R15,000 of headroom immediately, while somebody with R1 million only got the R30,000 cap.
The tax — and why it stings
The savings-pot withdrawal is treated as ordinary taxable income for the year. SARS issues a tax-directive to your fund and the fund deducts PAYE before paying you out. That sounds simple, but it has two surprising consequences. First, your effective tax rate is your marginal rate, not your average rate — for someone earning R600,000 a year, every rand of withdrawal is taxed at 36%, not at the ~22% blended rate they normally pay. Second, a sufficiently large withdrawal can push you into a higher bracket, so even your existing salary income above the new threshold gets taxed harder for the year.
On top of that, the SARS tax-directive process gives the Receiver a clean shot at recovering any outstanding tax debt from your withdrawal before you see a cent. Old assessments, late-filing penalties, unpaid administrative fines — all are deducted ahead of you. If you have unfiled returns or a long-standing assessment, settle them with SARS first or you may end up with a much smaller payout than the calculator above suggests.
When does a withdrawal actually make sense?
Mathematically, almost never. The savings pot is invested in the same balanced portfolio as the rest of your fund — call it a real return of about 5% above inflation. Pulling out R20,000 today loses you roughly R170,000 in spending power 25 years from now. You also lose the tax-deferred growth, which compounds in your favour for the entire period.
The exceptions worth taking are the cases the legislation was actually designed for: servicing high-interest debt (anything above 18–20% per year), funeral costs, urgent medical expenses your medical aid won't cover, and the like. The rule of thumb is straightforward: don't withdraw to pay off anything that's growing slower than 9% per year, and never withdraw for discretionary spending.
Frequently asked questions
What exactly is the two-pot retirement system?
From 1 September 2024, every contribution to your South African retirement fund (pension, provident or RA) is split between two pots. One-third goes into a savings pot you can access once per tax year, in cash, while you are still employed. The other two-thirds goes into a retirement pot that stays locked until you turn 55, designed to protect long-term savings. The balance you had vested on 31 August 2024 is otherwise untouched — except for a one-off 'seed capital' transfer of 10% of that balance (capped at R30,000) into your savings pot on day one of the new system.
How much SARS tax do I pay on a two-pot withdrawal?
Your savings-pot withdrawal is added to your annual taxable income for the year and taxed at your marginal rate, somewhere between 18% and 45% depending on what you earn. The fund applies for a tax-directive from SARS and deducts the PAYE before paying you. If you also owe SARS any outstanding amount — old assessments, late-filing penalties, unpaid administrative fines — that debt is recovered from this withdrawal first. The calculator above uses the correct 'additional income' method, so if your withdrawal pushes you into a higher bracket, only the portion sitting in the new bracket is taxed at the higher rate.
What is the minimum I can withdraw?
R2 000 per claim, gross (before tax and admin fees). If your savings pot has less than that, you cannot withdraw at all yet — you have to wait for it to grow with future contributions. You can only withdraw once per SARS tax year (1 March to 28/29 February), so timing matters: a withdrawal in February locks you out for that tax year and the next claim only opens on 1 March.
How much is the admin fee?
Administration fees vary slightly by fund administrator. Most charge around R250 (including VAT) for a digital claim through their app, online portal, or WhatsApp service. Paper-based claims are typically R350 including VAT. Always check your fund's fee schedule — Sanlam, Old Mutual, Momentum, Alexforbes and Liberty publish theirs on their member portals. The fee is deducted from the gross amount before SARS tax.
How was the seed capital on 1 September 2024 calculated?
The seed was a once-off transfer of 10% of your vested fund balance as it stood on 31 August 2024, capped at R30 000. So if you had R200,000 vested, R20,000 was moved into your savings pot on 1 September 2024. If you had R500,000 vested, only R30,000 (the cap) was moved. Anyone who joined a retirement fund for the first time after 1 September 2024 has no seed capital — their savings pot only grows from 1/3 of their new contributions.
Will my employer's contributions also count?
Yes. The 1/3 split applies to the total monthly contribution paid into your fund, not just your portion. If you contribute 7.5% of salary and your employer matches another 7.5%, the full 15% is what gets split — 5% goes to your savings pot every month, 10% goes to the locked retirement pot.
Should I actually withdraw?
Mathematically, in almost every case the answer is no. The same R20,000 left in the pot for 25 years at a 9% real return would compound to roughly R170,000. Pulling it out today loses the future growth and triggers an immediate 18–45% tax hit. That said, the system was designed for genuine emergencies — funeral costs, medical bills, urgent debt servicing — and using it for those rather than going to a payday lender at 5% per month is unambiguously the right move. As a rule of thumb: don't withdraw to pay off something that's growing slower than 9% per year, and don't withdraw for discretionary spending.
What about the retirement pot and the vested pot — can I touch those?
Not while you're still employed. The retirement pot is locked until age 55 — at that point it must be used to buy a compulsory annuity (with limited commutation rules). Your old vested pot keeps its old rules: if you resign or are retrenched, the vested pot can still be withdrawn in cash (subject to the retirement lump-sum tax tables), but the new retirement pot cannot. This is one of the headline trade-offs of two-pot — easier in-service access, but stricter long-term locking.
Sources: SARS — Two-Pot Retirement System member guide sars.gov.za; Revenue Laws Amendment Act, 2024; National Treasury draft response document (June 2023). PAYE brackets from the SARS 2026/2027 income tax tables. Admin-fee defaults from the Momentum and Old Mutual published fee schedules. This calculator is for illustrative purposes only and does not constitute financial or tax advice. Speak to a qualified CFP or tax practitioner before making a withdrawal decision — the tax cost is rarely the only factor that matters.
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