What is Code 3810 on a South African Payslip?
Your employer's medical aid contribution as a taxable fringe benefit — why it raises your PAYE, how tax credits offset it, and how all three medical aid codes work together.
3810Code 3810 is your employer's medical aid contribution, treated by SARS as a taxable fringe benefit. The amount increases your effective taxable income and therefore your PAYE — but medical aid tax credits (code 4474) are applied to offset most or all of the additional tax.
What Code 3810 Means
Code 3810 is a fringe benefit code — it sits in the 3800 series alongside other non-cash benefits your employer provides, such as company car use (code 3802) and free accommodation (code 3805). Specifically, 3810 records the monthly amount your employer contributes to your medical aid scheme on your behalf.
Under Section 2(h) of the Income Tax Act, employer-paid medical aid contributions are classified as a taxable fringe benefit. SARS treats these contributions as part of your remuneration — even though you never receive the money as cash. As a result, the code 3810 amount is added to your code 3601 base salary when your employer calculates your monthly PAYE, making your effective taxable income higher than your salary alone.
The reason SARS does this is consistency: an employee whose employer pays their medical aid receives a benefit equivalent to extra income. Without taxing it, two employees on the same cash salary but with different employer medical aid benefits would pay different amounts of tax on economically equivalent remuneration packages.
The Three Medical Aid Codes — How They Work Together
Code 3810 is one of three codes that interact to determine your net medical aid tax position. Understanding how they relate is essential to checking whether your payslip is correct.
The Three Medical Aid Codes
Employer's contribution — fringe benefit, increases your taxable income. Appears in the income/fringe benefit section of your IRP5.
Your contribution — deducted from your net pay. Appears in the deductions section of your IRP5. Not tax-deductible, but feeds into the Section 6B excess credit calculation.
Medical aid tax credit — a fixed monthly credit that reduces your PAYE directly. R376/month for the main member, R376 for the first adult dependant, R254 for each additional dependant (2026/2027).
Worked Example — Code 3810 in Practice
Consider an employee earning R30,000 gross salary per month. Their employer contributes R2,000 per month to a medical aid covering the employee plus one adult dependant. The employee also contributes R1,500 per month (code 4005).
| Item | Code | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Base salary | 3601 | R30,000 |
| Employer medical aid contribution (fringe benefit) | 3810 | R2,000 |
| Effective taxable income | — | R32,000 |
| Monthly PAYE on R32,000 (approx.) | 4102 | R5,281 |
| Less: Medical aid tax credit (main + 1 adult dependant) | 4474 | − R752 |
| Actual PAYE deducted | 4102 | R4,529 |
| Employee medical aid contribution | 4005 | R1,500 |
| UIF contribution | 4101 | R177.12 |
| Monthly take-home pay | — | R23,794 |
Notice that the R2,000 code 3810 fringe benefit increased the gross PAYE by approximately R550 (R2,000 × 26% marginal rate at this salary), but the R752 medical aid tax credit more than offset that increase — resulting in a net tax saving compared to having no medical aid at all.
Use our Medical Aid Tax Credit Calculator to calculate your exact Section 6A and 6B credits.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does code 3810 mean on my payslip?
Code 3810 is your employer's monthly medical aid contribution, classified as a taxable fringe benefit under the Income Tax Act. SARS treats this as part of your income — so the 3810 amount is added to your salary when calculating PAYE. You then receive medical aid tax credits (code 4474) which offset most or all of the additional tax.
Why does code 3810 increase my tax?
SARS treats any benefit your employer provides with a monetary value as taxable remuneration — including employer-paid medical aid. Adding code 3810 to your taxable income means PAYE is calculated on a higher figure than your cash salary alone. The code 4474 tax credits then reduce the resulting PAYE, typically offsetting most of the additional tax burden.
What is the difference between code 3810, 4005 and 4474?
Code 3810 is the employer's contribution — a fringe benefit that increases your taxable income. Code 4005 is your own contribution — deducted from your net pay. Code 4474 is the SARS medical aid tax credit — a fixed monthly amount that directly reduces your PAYE. Together the three codes determine your complete medical aid tax position.
Is code 3810 shown as income on my IRP5?
Yes. Code 3810 appears in the fringe benefit section of your IRP5, which contributes to your gross remuneration total. This is why your IRP5 income figure is often higher than your actual cash salary — the employer medical aid contribution is included as income even though you never received it as cash.
How do medical aid tax credits offset code 3810?
The 2026/2027 Section 6A medical aid tax credits are R376/month for the main member, R376/month for the first adult dependant, and R254/month for each additional dependant. These credits reduce your PAYE directly — not your taxable income. For most employees the credits significantly offset or eliminate the net tax cost of the 3810 fringe benefit.
What if my employer pays my full medical aid with no employee contribution?
If your employer covers the entire premium, the full amount is reported under code 3810 and there is no code 4005 entry. You still receive the same medical aid tax credits (code 4474) based on the number of members covered. Your IRP5 will reflect the full premium as a fringe benefit and the tax credits as a deduction against your PAYE.
Related Payslip Codes
Full explainer for code 4005 coming soon.