The South African figures a trader looks up rather than reads once: tax tables, rate history, licence categories and exchange costs. Every page is dated and every number is sourced.
These thirty-four pages answer "what is the number" rather than "how does it work". Each leads with a dated table, cites the body that publishes the figure, and says what the table does not cover. The explanation follows the numbers rather than standing in front of them.
The personal income tax brackets, rebates and thresholds SARS applies for the 2026/27 year of assessment, with the two years before it for comparison.
The CGT inclusion rates, annual exclusion and effective rates that apply to individuals, companies and trusts in South Africa, with the exemptions that remove a gain entirely.
When the two IRP6 returns are due, how the required estimate is worked out, and what the underestimation and late payment penalties cost.
The 20% rate on South African dividends, the treaty rates that apply to foreign shares, and what a South African resident can and cannot reclaim.
When filing season opens and closes for individuals, provisional taxpayers and trusts, and how auto assessment changes what you have to do.
The annual and lifetime contribution limits on a South African tax-free savings account, what the 40% penalty applies to, and what may be held inside one.
How much you may deduct for retirement fund contributions in South Africa, the annual cap, and what happens to contributions above it.
How the savings, retirement and vested components work, what may be withdrawn each year, and how a withdrawal is taxed.
The rates SARS charges on late tax and pays on overpayments, the official rate of interest for fringe benefits, and where each one applies.
The per-kilometre rate, the deemed cost tables and the daily subsistence amounts SARS accepts without receipts.
Every South African Reserve Bank repo rate decision with the date it took effect and the reasoning the MPC gave, from the 2020 cutting cycle to the current level.
The South African prime lending rate over time, the fixed spread that ties it to the repo rate, and what it prices in practice.
Headline consumer price inflation in South Africa month by month, against the Reserve Bank's target, with the core measure that strips out food and fuel.
When the Monetary Policy Committee meets, how the announcement is made, and what to expect from the statement and the vote split.
The single discretionary allowance and the foreign investment allowance, what each covers, what clearance each needs and how the limits have changed.
USD/ZAR, EUR/ZAR and GBP/ZAR at each year end since 2000, with what moved the rand in each period.
The benchmark government bonds, what each one yields, how the curve is shaped and what the spread over US Treasuries says about risk.
Annual real GDP growth since 2000, the sectors that drive it, and how a growth print feeds through to the rand and the JSE.
The official and expanded unemployment rates since 2000, the difference between the two measures, and why the gap matters.
What each FSCA financial services provider category permits, which one a forex or CFD broker needs, and why the category matters more than the FSP number.
Where the FSCA public register lives, what each field on a licence record means, and the specific things that should stop you opening an account.
The acts that govern trading, brokers and client money in South Africa, what each one does and which regulator enforces it.
Who can complain to the FAIS Ombud, what the office can award, how long it takes and what falls outside its reach.
What the FSCA can impose, how debarment works, the size of recent penalties, and where enforcement outcomes are published.
How crypto assets are licensed and taxed in South Africa, which regulator covers what, and what a platform must hold to operate here legally.
When the JSE opens, closes and runs its auctions in South African time, and the public holidays on which the exchange does not trade.
How long a JSE trade takes to settle, who does the settling, and when the shares and the money actually change hands.
What each JSE index measures, how constituents are chosen and weighted, and why the Top 40 and the All Share move so closely together.
Every cost on a JSE share trade, which side pays it, and what a round trip needs to move before it breaks even.
Which JSE shares trade the most, what liquidity does to the spread you actually pay, and how to read volume before taking a position.
How JSE-listed companies are classified, which sectors carry the most index weight, and what drives each one.
The main exchange traded funds listed on the JSE, what each tracks, typical total expense ratios and how they are taxed.
When each forex session opens and closes in South African time, where they overlap, and which pairs are liquid in each window.
Typical leverage offered on each instrument class, what margin that implies, and how South African limits compare with other jurisdictions.
The thirty-four pages here cover the four areas where a South African trader needs a figure rather than an opinion, and where getting it wrong has a cost.
Tax and SARS. The brackets, the rebates, the capital gains inclusion rates and the provisional tax deadlines. Trading profit that SARS treats as revenue is added to your other income, so the rate that applies depends on everything else you earn. The deadlines are absolute and the penalties are formulaic.
The Reserve Bank and rates. Every repo rate decision with the reasoning behind it, the prime rate that tracks it, the inflation series policy is set against, and the exchange control allowances that cap what you can move offshore in a year.
FSCA and regulation. What each licence category permits, how to read the public register, which act governs which problem, and what the FAIS Ombud can and cannot do for you.
The JSE. Trading hours and the auctions that bracket them, the settlement cycle that decides when money actually moves, how the indices are weighted, and every cost on a trade.
A reference page is only worth the currency of its figures, so three things are true of every page in this section.
Each one shows the date its figures were checked, in the byline, before you reach the table. Each one links to the primary source for the numbers on it: SARS for tax, the Reserve Bank for rates, the FSCA for licensing, the JSE for market structure, Statistics South Africa for inflation. No page here cites a secondary summary for a figure it presents as fact.
And each one says what the figures do not cover. A table of brackets does not tell you whether your trading profit is revenue or capital. A settlement cycle does not tell you when your broker will release the cash. Those limits are stated on the page rather than left for you to discover.
Where a figure has moved, the page is updated and the date moves with it. Where something is genuinely uncertain, the page says so instead of picking a number.