VAT on a certificate: 15 per cent, on the net
VAT looks like the easy line on a payment certificate until you put it on the wrong figure. It goes on the net, after retention, at the rate SARS sets, and right now that rate is 15 per cent.
QScope Team · 15 February 2026 · 5 min read
Every payment certificate ends with VAT, and it is the line surveyors treat as trivial and get wrong most often. The mistake is almost never the rate. It is the figure the rate is applied to.
The rate is 15 per cent
VAT in South Africa is charged at 15 per cent, and that is the figure that belongs on a construction payment certificate. There was a proposal to lift the rate to 15.5 and then 16 per cent during 2025, but it was withdrawn, so the rate stayed at 15 per cent. On a certificate today, use 15 per cent and nothing else.
VAT goes on the net
The order on a certificate matters. You take the gross value of work certified, deduct retention, and VAT at 15 per cent applies to the net amount that remains. Charge VAT on the gross and you have overstated the tax, because you are charging it on money the employer is holding back and has not paid.
- Gross. The cumulative certified value of the work and materials.
- Less retention. The security deduction, off the gross.
- Net. The figure actually falling due this cycle.
- Plus VAT. 15 per cent on the net, giving the amount to pay.
Why it has to reconcile with SARS
The VAT on the certificate is output tax the contractor accounts for to SARS. If the certificate says one thing and the tax invoice says another, the return does not tie back to the work, and the contractor is either overpaying tax or carrying a gap it will have to explain. Keeping the certificate and the invoice on the same net figure is what keeps the SARS position clean.
Cumulative certificates, cumulative VAT
Because JBCC certificates are cumulative, the VAT on each one is the tax on the movement, the net this cycle, not the whole job restated. Get the net right and the VAT follows. Get the net wrong, by applying retention in the wrong order, and the tax is wrong by the same amount every month until someone catches it.
The habit
Never write the VAT line by eye. Build the certificate in order, gross, less retention, net, then VAT at 15 per cent, and let the tax fall out of the figures above it. A VAT number that was typed rather than calculated is a number waiting to be queried.
QScope carries the gross, the retention and the net through the certificate and applies VAT at 15 per cent to the correct figure every cycle.