Lesson 3 of 3 · 45 minutes · Tertiary and adult education
Own name, company or trust: a property lesson plan for university and adult education
45-minute lesson plan
One-page printable worksheet
Answer key
Free, no sign-up
Part of Counter That for teachers, by Privately. Updated 9 October 2026. Every worked figure and answer on this page is computed from the game’s own engine, not typed.
Students compare owning a rental property in a person's own name, in a company and in a trust. The same R90 000 of rent costs R32 400 in tax in own name, R24 300 in a company that keeps the profit and R40 500 in a trust that keeps its income, and a R500 000 gain costs R67 326, R108 000 or R180 000. The lesson shows why no structure is cheapest for everyone. Facts and arithmetic, not advice.
For: University and adult education (personal finance, tax, property law, accounting, financial planning).
What students will be able to do
Say who the taxpayer is for a property held in own name, in a company and in a trust.
Work out the income tax on a year's rent in each, and the capital gains tax on a sale in each.
Explain why a company's lower rate is a deferral if the profit is paid out, and why a company or ordinary trust gets no annual exclusion.
Explain that moving a home you already own into a company or trust counts as a sale at market value.
Name the facts that decide which owner suits an investor, instead of claiming one is always better.
Before the lesson
Read the guide on owning a property portfolio in a company or trust, and our guide to own name, company or trust. Both are linked below.
Print Worksheet 3 with its Print worksheet button below, one per student, or show it on a screen.
Each pair needs a phone, tablet or computer with a browser. This lesson works well with one shared screen if devices are scarce.
Say at the start that the lesson teaches how the rules work. It does not tell anyone which structure to use.
The lesson plan, minute by minute
10 min
Who pays the tax?
Put three headings on the board: own name, company, trust. Ask who the taxpayer is in each. A company and a trust are separate taxpayers with their own rates, and a person has the full table of rates. Hand out the worksheet and read the case aloud.
15 min
Play the owner guess in the game
In pairs, open the game, keep Quick run selected, choose Dr Priya Naidoo (she owns her home, has R1 200 000 saved and pays 45% tax on every extra rand), press Play now, close the opening cards, and tap a home with a For sale sign on the town board. Choose Buy it to let out. The game asks Which owner leaves the most after tax? and offers four taps: your own name, a company, a trust, or a trust that owns a company (and Skip the guess). After the tap it shows what each owner leaves after tax over 10 years, ranked, and says whether the guess matched. Students say whether the ranking surprised them. They can stop there.
15 min
Work through the case
Students complete the worksheet. Walk the room for question 3.3: the own name capital gains tax crosses two bands of the table, and the exclusion is taken before the 40% inclusion.
5 min
Discuss and send them to the calculator
Use the discussion prompt below, then point students to the calculators to test their own numbers.
Open Counter ThatDr Priya Naidoo, Quick run, Buy it to let out. No sign-up.
Worksheet 3 and answer key
The worksheet fits one A4 page. The answer key opens below it and prints only when you press its own button.
Counter That for teachers, by Privately
Worksheet 3: Own name, company or trust
Tertiary and adult education. Facts and arithmetic, not advice.
Thandi earns a taxable salary of R600 000 a year. She is weighing a flat to let that will earn R90 000 a year after all its costs, and may later sell it at a capital gain of R500 000 after costs. She has no other gains that year. Compare three owners using the 2026/27 rates.
Three owners
Owner
Tax on income it keeps
Share of a gain taxed
R50 000 annual exclusion
Own name
Her own rates (table)
40%
Yes
Company
27%
80%
No
Trust that keeps its income
45%
80%
No
Income tax rates for a person, 2026/27 (rate on income above each amount)
Taxable income above
Rate on the next rand
R0
18%
R245 100
26%
R383 100
31%
R530 200
36%
R695 800
39%
R887 000
41%
R1 878 600
45%
Thandi's tax on R600 000 is R132 907 after the rebate.
Questions
3.1
Work out the tax on the R90 000 of rent in each owner. Which pays the least?
3.2
The company pays all its after-tax profit out to Thandi as a dividend, and dividends tax is 20%. How much of the R90 000 reaches her? Compare that with owning in her own name. What does the company's lower rate really buy her?
3.3
The flat is sold at a gain of R500 000. Work out the capital gains tax in each owner. In her own name the gain after the annual exclusion, at the share taxed, is added to her income and taxed in the bands of the table.
3.4
True or false, with a reason. (a) A company gets the R50 000 annual exclusion on a sale. (b) Moving a flat Thandi already owns into her own company is not a sale, because she owns both sides.
3.5
Name two facts about an investor that would change which owner costs least.
Figures: prime 10.75% (checked 24 September 2026), 2026/27 tax and transfer rules (checked 28 September 2026). Teaching examples, not quotes. A registered tax practitioner or financial adviser can advise on your own situation.
Answer key for teachers: Worksheet 3: Own name, company or trust
Answer key, for teachers only
Answer key for worksheet 3: Own name, company or trust
Every answer is computed from the game's engine and checked against its ledger kernel, the rules the game itself uses for tax. Facts only: A registered tax practitioner or financial adviser can advise on your own situation.
3.1. Own name R32 400, company R24 300, trust that keeps its income R40 500. The company pays the least.
Own name: R90 000 x 36% = R32 400. All of the rent sits inside the 36% band, because R690 000 is below R695 800.
Company: R90 000 x 27% = R24 300.
Trust that keeps its income: R90 000 x 45% = R40 500.
A trust that hands the rent to a resident beneficiary such as Thandi in the same tax year is taxed at her own rates, so it matches own name.
3.2. R52 560 reaches her from the company, against R57 600 in her own name, so the company route leaves her R5 040 less. The lower company rate only helps while the profit stays in the company.
Company tax: R24 300. After tax: R90 000 less R24 300 = R65 700.
Dividends tax: 20% of R65 700 = R13 140.
Reaches Thandi: R65 700 less R13 140 = R52 560. That is 41.6% tax in all.
Own name: R90 000 less R32 400 = R57 600.
Profit left in the company, to pay a deposit on the next property for instance, is R65 700 after tax, against R57 600 in her hands. The company is a deferral of the second layer of tax, not a way out of it.
3.3. Own name R67 326 (13.5% of the gain), company R108 000 (21.6%), trust that keeps its income R180 000 (36%). Own name pays the least here.
Own name: R500 000 less the R50 000 exclusion = R450 000. 40% of that is taxed: R180 000.
Her income goes from R600 000 to R780 000, so the extra tax is R95 800 at 36% = R34 488 + R84 200 at 39% = R32 838 = R67 326.
Company: 80% of R500 000 = R400 000 taxed, at 27% = R108 000. No annual exclusion.
Trust that keeps its income: R400 000 at 45% = R180 000. No annual exclusion for an ordinary trust.
The most capital gains tax a person can pay is 18% of a gain (40% x 45%); a company 21.6%; a trust 36%.
A trust that hands the gain to a resident beneficiary in the year of sale is taxed in the beneficiary's hands instead, and the trustees decide.
3.4. (a) False. (b) False.
(a) The R50 000 annual exclusion is for natural persons and special trusts only, never a company or an ordinary trust.
(b) Moving a home you own into a company or trust is a sale at market value. On a flat worth R2 000 000 that cost R1 200 000, a gain of R800 000 less the R50 000 exclusion, 40% taxed (R300 000), costs R95 800 at 36% = R34 488 + R191 200 at 39% = R74 568 + R13 000 at 41% = R5 330 = R114 386 in capital gains tax now, and the company pays transfer duty of R33 786 on the market value.
Into a company, a tax rule (section 42 of the Income Tax Act, with section 9(1)(l) of the Transfer Duty Act) can sometimes defer the tax and the duty under strict conditions that a tax practitioner checks. There is no such relief for a move into a trust. The game names this and does not model it.
3.5. Any two of the facts below. There is no one right answer, which is the point.
Her tax bracket: a company's 27% beats her own rate only when her next rand is taxed above 27%, and a trust that keeps its income pays 45%, the top rate.
Whether she will draw the profit or keep reinvesting it.
Whether the homes will be sold in her lifetime or kept until death.
Gearing and early losses: a loss in her own name can lower the tax on her salary; in a company or trust it stays inside.
Running costs: the game assumes about R9 000 a year for a company and R18 000 a year for a trust.
A loan to a trust and the donations tax rule (section 7C).
A company's or trust's own running costs are left out of this worksheet to keep the arithmetic short. The game charges them, and so should a real comparison.
The figures use the 2026/27 amounts SARS applies from 1 March 2026. The 2026 Rates Bill that enacts them was before Parliament in October 2026.
A registered tax practitioner or financial adviser can advise on your own situation.
Discussion prompt
On these numbers own name pays the least tax on the sale and a company pays the least on the rent. Name three facts about an investor that would change the answer, and say which way each one pushes.
Points to draw out
Tax bracket: a company pays 27% on profit it keeps, so the higher a person's own rate, the more it can save. A trust that keeps its income pays 45%, the top personal rate, so its tax case rests on handing income to resident adult beneficiaries on lower rates in the same tax year, not on the rate itself.
Draw or keep: a company's profit paid out as a dividend costs 41.6% in all, so the company route helps mainly while profit is reinvested.
Sell or keep: a gain costs at most 18% in own name against 21.6% in a company (then dividends tax on the way out) and 36% in an ordinary trust. At death the picture changes again, which the game's death view shows.
Early losses: in own name a rental loss can lower the tax on a salary (with limits under section 20A). In a company or trust it stays inside.
Running costs and paperwork: a company or trust costs money every year, whatever it earns.
Loans to a trust: an interest free loan can trigger donations tax under section 7C above a threshold, which the game computes.
A registered tax practitioner or financial adviser can advise on your own situation.
Curriculum link
Not mapped to the CAPS. This lesson is written for tertiary and adult education: courses in personal finance, introductory tax, property law, accounting, financial planning and entrepreneurship.
Work with income tax brackets and work out income tax. This is the nearest school link: the worksheet uses the same bracket table, but the company, trust and capital gains content is well beyond Grade 12.
Company tax, trust tax, capital gains tax and the rules for moving a property into a company or trust are university and professional content. The CAPS does not cover them.
Extension
Students read the portfolio guide, then use the calculators with figures of their own and compare what they get with their working on paper. They then change one fact (for example the salary) and say what moved.
Is a company or a trust always better than owning a property in your own name?
No, and lesson 3 shows why with numbers. On R90 000 of rent, a company that keeps the profit pays R24 300 and a trust that keeps its income pays R40 500, against R32 400 in your own name at a 36% rate. Those rent figures are for profit kept in the company or trust, before dividends tax and before running costs. Paid out to its owner as a dividend, the company's tax comes to 41.6% in all. On a R500 000 sale gain, own name pays R67 326, a company R108 000 and a trust R180 000, also before running costs and, for a company, before dividends tax on the way out. Which owner costs least depends on the investor's income, plans and the rules the structure must follow. A registered tax practitioner or financial adviser can advise on your own situation.
Counter That is an educational game with made-up homes, people and banks. The worksheets are teaching examples, not financial, legal or tax advice. No student data is collected: the privacy notes say what happens when a class plays.
