Gauteng had the largest number of taxpayers for the 2015 tax year in South Africa, according to the latest tax statistics report.

The report, which is published jointly by National Treasury and the South African Revenue Services (Sars), was released on Tuesday. It takes the tax register as at March 2016.

There was a total of 18.2-million registered taxpayers which was up 8.4% compared to the previous year. Of these, only 4.8-million of taxpayers were assessed.

The aggregated taxable income was R1.3-trillion. However, the tax liability of assessed individuals came to R268.5-billion.

Fin24 previously reported that personal income tax (PIT) was the largest source of tax revenue, contributing 36.4% of total tax revenue collections in 2015.

For the 2015 tax year, over 1.9-million (40.1%) of assessed taxpayers were registered in Gauteng, and over 1.6-million (34.9%) were from Gauteng according to residential data. More than 600 000 assessed taxpayers lived in the Johannesburg Metro and were taxed on an average taxable income of R404 430, the report stated.

A total of R136.1-billion of income tax payments of the province was assessed. This is half (50.7%) of total tax assessed in the country.

The province with the least registered taxpayers was the Northern Cape, comprising 1.9% or more than 89 500 taxpayers. A total of R3.4-billion of tax was assessed.

The North West and Free State each had 4.6% registered taxpayers and collectively contributed R17-billion in taxable income.

Only 231 336 (4.8%) of taxpayers were registered in Limpopo, and R9.3-billion of tax was assessed.

The Western Cape province had the second-most registered taxpayers at over 735 000. A total of R39.6-billion of tax was assessed. This was followed by KwaZulu-Natal, and the Eastern Cape, with 14.8% and 7.8% of registered taxpayers respectively.

Tax assessed in KwaZulu-Natal amounted to R34.4-billion of tax. Tax assessed in Eastern Cape was R14.2bn.

Mpumalanga had over 290 000 taxpayers (6.1%), with R14.3-billion tax assessed.

The report indicates that these figures are not a reflection of residence, economic activity or employment in these provinces. A taxpayer may be employed, or live in a different province to where he or she is registered for tax.

Income from salaries, wages and remuneration as well as pension, overtime and annuities accounted for 63.6% of total taxable income, the report stated.

In 2010 Sars changed its registration policy, requiring employers to register all their employees for tax, regardless of their tax liability status. This contributed to the growth in the tax register from 13.7-million recorded in 2012, to 18.2-million recorded in 2015.