Lifestyle audits were initiated by SARS back in 2007, however actual action earnestly began only a few years ago with the arrival of SARS Commissioner Edward Kieswetter. These audits are conducted when SARS suspects that the taxpayer is not declaring all his or her income and thus is underpaying the factual tax due.
SARS has started to make good on its promise in the 2020 Budget Review by enhancing their verification and audit processes to accurately review the compliance and tax statuses of South Africans abroad.
As emigration by skilled South Africans rises, experts in the auditing and insurance sectors have warned this will weaken the country’s skills base and reduce the pool of wealthy individuals, whose spending on goods and services support many businesses.
Expatriate taxpayers awaiting approval of their non-resident status may be surprised to discover that SARS can track their flights into and out of South Africa.
SARS introduced its Tax Non-Resident Confirmation letter in 2021, and it now appears that emigrated taxpayers, whose residency status was previously disclosed to SARS as non-resident, are now finding their status has been reset to ‘resident’. This may possibly have been due to a bug, or one arm not speaking to the other, when SARS […]
A momentous event, held on 22 August 2022, drew a massive audience, comprising many well-known high net worth VIPs, senior SARS officials and officials from other African Revenue Authorities, tax heads in various capacities, top wealth managers, academics and other notable attendees.
The South African Revenue Service’s (“SARS”) focus on South Africans abroad was first revealed in the 2017 Budget Speech. Their reasons were only revealed in the pursuant Parliamentary debate, where in the Q&A session it was shared that National Treasury and SARS had been keeping a close eye on expatriate tax compliance.
With discussions on imposing a wealth tax being rife in preceding years, policy makers are turning to the South African Revenue Service (“SARS”) to look into the feasibility of this new proposed tax, to bridge the “widest wealth gap in the world”.
Of late, digital news platforms have been awash with volumes of contradicting information regarding the Emigration Tax Compliance Status (TCS) PIN and SARS Non-Resident Tax Status Confirmation Letter. For the benefit of the taxpayers, more especially expatriates, we see it necessary to clarify the different uses and benefits of these two very important documents in […]
South African expatriates living in Guernsey, Jersey or the Isle of Man are under grave threat from the South African Revenue Service (SARS).
