South African small business toolkit

A free toolkit for one person starting and running a business in South Africa. You are the owner. You are also the only worker.

Written in simple English for readers who do not speak English as a first language, and for people who have never run a business before.

Read this first

This toolkit was written by an AI assistant (Claude, made by Anthropic). Every fee, threshold, form number and legal requirement in it was checked against official South African sources on 13 September 2026, and those sources are listed with links in Sources and verification register.

AI can still be wrong, and South African rules change often. Before you pay money, sign something, or file something, open the official link in the sources file and confirm the number yourself.

This is general information. It is not legal advice, tax advice, or financial advice. Full details are in How this was made and how to check it.

Where to start

If you have 5 minutes: read Core: start here.

If you have an hour: read all of Core: applies to everyone, then open your business type in Your kind of business.

If you already know what you need and just want to do it: open Master checklist.

If you do not understand a word or an abbreviation: Glossary.

Full instructions are in How to use this toolkit.

What is in here

The short version of the whole toolkit

You do not need most of what people tell you to get.

You can legally start selling today, as yourself, with no company registration, no logo, and no website. Earn money first. Add the formal parts as the business grows.

The four things that actually matter early:

1. A separate bank account for business money
2. Filing with SARS, even at zero income
3. A licence, if your business type needs one, before you trade
4. Records kept for five years

Three numbers changed in 2026 and most websites still have them wrong:

• Compulsory VAT registration: R2.3 million, not R1 million, from 1 April 2026
• Voluntary VAT registration: R120,000, not R50,000
• Turnover tax: R2.3 million threshold, with 0% on the first R600,000

Licence

This guide is dedicated to the public domain under CC0 1.0(external link). Use it, copy it, change it, give it to someone else, for any purpose. No attribution required.

If you pass it on, please keep How this was made and how to check it and Sources and verification register with it, so the next person knows how it was made and can check the facts.