Author Archive for: Financial Emigration

“Expats who follow shady advice to deregister as taxpayers with SARS will suffer in the long run,” says Jonty Leon, Legal Manager (Expatriate Tax) at Tax Consulting SA.

SARS’ announcement that it has started auto-assessing certain taxpayers may lead some people to believe they no longer need to worry about their tax submissions.

The new Draft Tax Administration Laws Amendment Bill (“TALAB”), released on 31 July 2020, proposes a law change that will effectively lower the threshold for SARS and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to criminally prosecute taxpayers.

Currently, individuals are able to withdraw their retirement annuity when they turn 55 or when they financially emigrate and their emigration has been approved by the South African Revenue Service (“SARS”) and by the South African Reserve Bank (“SARB”).

The History of the Policy Shift A quick recap for newcomers to taxation of South Africans abroad is that after a near two decade policy of giving an employment tax exemption to South Africans performing employment services abroad, there was a material policy shift by National Treasury and SARS, first to completely remove the exemption […]