Soil Taxonomy and the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) are the commonly used international soil classification systems. Although these systems acknowledge similar diagnostics for salt affected soils, they key out in very different taxonomic units. The paper will discuss the master properties, the related diagnostics and the classification problems of saline and sodic soils in both systems. Taxonomic distance studies of these soil groups will be presented as well as recommendations for improvement of classification in future systems.