What is your tax-free savings actually worth?
Project your TFSA over time, next to the same money in a taxed account, and see the tax that never gets charged.
A tax-free savings account pays no income tax, no dividends tax, and no capital gains tax on its growth. The value of that is invisible in the account balance. It shows up only when you compare it to what an equivalent taxed investment would have paid SARS over the same period. This calculator does that comparison, inside the R46,000 annual and R500,000 lifetime limits. Everything is computed in your browser.
Your numbers never leave this page, and the growth rate is an assumption you set, not a forecast.
How this is computed
The wrapper is worth the tax it never charges
A tax-free savings account is a wrapper. The same shares or unit trusts sit inside it, but three taxes fall away. There is no income tax on interest, no dividends tax, and no capital gains tax when you sell. Withdrawals are tax-free too.
The projection grows your contributions at the rate you set. Contributions stop at the R46,000 annual limit and the R500,000 lifetime limit, because anything above those is charged a 40% penalty and is not a sensible thing to model. The taxed comparison runs the same contributions through an ordinary investment account. Dividends are reduced by 20% dividends tax each year, and at the end the capital gain is taxed: 40% of the gain above the annual exclusion, at your marginal rate.
What the limits actually mean
Growth inside the account does not use up your limits. Only contributions count. One thing catches people out. If you withdraw from a TFSA and later put the money back, the re-contribution counts again, so a withdrawal permanently spends lifetime headroom you cannot get back.
Worked example: R46 000 today, 8% growth, 20 years (2027 tax year)
Tax-free, the R46 000 grows to about R214 400, and none of it is taxed on the way out.
The same R46 000 in a taxed account, with 3% of the return as dividends and the rest as capital growth, reaches about R191 800 before the final sale. Capital gains tax on the disposal takes roughly R13 800, leaving about R178 000. The wrapper is worth about R36 400 in this scenario. Every figure here is an assumption you can change.
Common questions
After reading this section, if you still have questions, feel free to contact us however you want.
How much can I put into a TFSA?
For the 2027 tax year, R46 000 a year and R500 000 over your lifetime, across every tax-free account you hold combined. Above either limit, SARS charges a 40% penalty on the excess.
Does the growth count toward my limit?
No. Only your contributions count. A R46 000 contribution that grows to R214 400 has still only used R46 000 of your R500 000 lifetime room.
What happens if I withdraw and put it back?
The re-contribution counts as a new contribution against both limits. Withdrawing and re-contributing therefore uses up lifetime headroom you cannot recover. A TFSA rewards leaving the money in place.
Do my numbers leave my computer?
No. Every calculation runs in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, stored, or sent to a server — which also keeps it clean under POPIA.
Who built this
Rian Cronje comes to personal finance from the outside. After 25 years in corporate finance: Group Financial Controller roles, multi-currency consolidations and digital transformation, the unglamorous rigour of making a business’s accounts actually reconcile - he found almost none of that discipline had reached the way individuals track their own wealth. He is not an advisor; he has nothing to sell you about where to put your money. He built Monverdo to close that gap: to hold a person’s wealth to the standard a company holds its own books, and to break down the jargon that keeps capable people. him once included, locked out of their own numbers.
The methods shown here are standard, textbook financial calculations: implemented faithfully, with every intermediate figure shown so you can check the result yourself. This is an educational tool, not financial advice. Monverdo is a wealth-tracking product in development. Join the waitlist to track your wealth across every account automatically.
See your real net worth across every account - in rand or dollar.
One reconciled view, the same number whichever way it’s checked. Monverdo is the personal wealth platform built like a real one.