Foreign bank accounts

whatwhat

whatwhat

Executive Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2009
Messages
6,565
Reaction score
848
Location
Hong Kong
A few years ago when the Rand started tanking against the USD/GBP there was a lot of people that started moving all their money into foreign bank accounts.

However over the last few years the ZAR has strengthened a little bit, and while not fully recovered it doesn't seem to see-saw as much.

Curious if people are still actively putting money into USD/GBP/etc accounts (like the FNB Global or FNB Channel Islands)?
 
didnt they now put into place restrictions on how much people can put into these types of accounts?

just a suggestion, not sure if its still relevant,
 
whatwhat said:
A few years ago when the Rand started tanking against the USD/GBP there was a lot of people that started moving all their money into foreign bank accounts.

However over the last few years the ZAR has strengthened a little bit, and while not fully recovered it doesn't seem to see-saw as much.

Curious if people are still actively putting money into USD/GBP/etc accounts (like the FNB Global or FNB Channel Islands)?
Click to expand...
Wait what?

https://businesstech.co.za/news/fin...lds-most-volatile-emerging-market-currencies/

We'll see R14 to the dollar real soon.
 
Snyper564 said:
Correct
Click to expand...

Those are in place, but that's not a limit as to how much you're allowed to keep in a foreign account, which is what eg2505 said there were.
Besides, the limits before you have to get clearance is R1m pa, and you can take significantly more out per year if you receive clearance from the SARB. And honestly, if you're hitting those sorts of limits, you should be dealing with a specialist company anyway.
 
Messugga said:
You're talking about allowances with regards to how much you can transfer out within a single year, I assume?
Click to expand...

yes, arent there strict laws about this sort of bank account?
like you can only have X amount, and you only allowed after permission from SARS.

I mean SARS surely isnt too happy to keep letting people take money out of SA if their surname isnt gupta:p
 
eg2505 said:
yes, arent there strict laws about this sort of bank account?
like you can only have X amount, and you only allowed after permission from SARS.

I mean SARS surely isnt too happy to keep letting people take money out of SA if their surname isnt gupta:p
Click to expand...

No.
 
eg2505 said:
yes, arent there strict laws about this sort of bank account?
like you can only have X amount, and you only allowed after permission from SARS.

I mean SARS surely isnt too happy to keep letting people take money out of SA if their surname isnt gupta:p
Click to expand...

Not all that strict. You can happily transfer R1m per annum offshore as part of your discretionary allowance. This has to be reported to SARB but generally if you do this via your local bank, it will do the reporting for you as part of the transaction if you do a SWIFT payment, for example. You also have to list the account on your SARS tax return as well as include any interest payments as those are taxable. You can transfer more than R1m (up to R10m) but that needs clearances and approval from SARB. There is no limit on how much you can hold in total in an offshore bank account, but you will need to declare the annual interest.
 
garp said:
This has to be reported to SARB but generally if you do this via your local bank, it will do the reporting for you as part of the transaction
Click to expand...

Correct. This is part of Balance Of Payments (BOP), which banks in SA need to comply to. All transactions crossing borders, being facilitated by the banks, be they loans, forex or other, needs to be reported to the SARB. Failing to do so, results in penalties being awarded. The banks aren't super successful at this yet, though it's improving.
 
Seems like bad timing to move it now.

Well unless you expect rates to deteriorate further.
 
eg2505 said:
didnt they now put into place restrictions on how much people can put into these types of accounts?

just a suggestion, not sure if its still relevant,
Click to expand...

You still have 1M discretionnary allowance a year and 10M if you have a tax clearance certificate.
 
eg2505 said:
yes, arent there strict laws about this sort of bank account?
like you can only have X amount, and you only allowed after permission from SARS.

I mean SARS surely isnt too happy to keep letting people take money out of SA if their surname isnt gupta:p
Click to expand...
You're confusing SARS with SARB.

Your local tax liability has nothing to do with what bank, denomination or currency you income is in.

SARB want to know what assets are in local currency and which are not. Provided your affairs are in order and you disclose, there's no practical limit to what you can keep abroad or in a non-ZAR account. The R1m/R10m figure is just a periodically revised "no questions asked" threshold. If you need more, ask SARB. Btw, they're especially interested in expatriation of local assets.
 
garp said:
Not all that strict. You can happily transfer R1m per annum offshore as part of your discretionary allowance. This has to be reported to SARB but generally if you do this via your local bank, it will do the reporting for you as part of the transaction if you do a SWIFT payment, for example. You also have to list the account on your SARS tax return as well as include any interest payments as those are taxable. You can transfer more than R1m (up to R10m) but that needs clearances and approval from SARB. There is no limit on how much you can hold in total in an offshore bank account, but you will need to declare the annual interest.
Click to expand...

Sorry to necro this thread, but I just wanted to point out that there is no mechanism to "list" your offshore bank account in your personal income tax return with SARS. The only possibility is that if you are required to fill in a statement of assets and liabilities, there is a section for "Foreign Assets" in which you are required to fill in the value of any foreign assets you own at cost. It's there you can enter the value of any offshore bank accounts you hold. But if you are not required to fill in a statement of assets and liabilities (which most taxpayers are not) then there is actually no way to tell SARS about your offshore bank account, nor are you required to.

Obviously if you earn any interest from that account you are required to declare the interest income on your tax return, but that's a different matter from actually declaring that you have an offshore bank account.
 
deweyzeph said:
Sorry to necro this thread, but I just wanted to point out that there is no mechanism to "list" your offshore bank account in your personal income tax return with SARS. The only possibility is that if you are required to fill in a statement of assets and liabilities, there is a section for "Foreign Assets" in which you are required to fill in the value of any foreign assets you own at cost. It's there you can enter the value of any offshore bank accounts you hold. But if you are not required to fill in a statement of assets and liabilities (which most taxpayers are not) then there is actually no way to tell SARS about your offshore bank account, nor are you required to.

Obviously if you earn any interest from that account you are required to declare the interest income on your tax return, but that's a different matter from actually declaring that you have an offshore bank account.
Click to expand...
Well, yes I guess so. I'm in the category that has to list all my foreign assets so that's kind of what I meant. These days I believe your bank automatically tracks and reports your R1m annual discretionary allowance anyway - someone in a another thread was saying that their overseas subscriptions and purchases (i.e. Amazon, etc) were automatically blocked by their bank (went over the limit on crypto purchases or something).
 
garp said:
Well, yes I guess so. I'm in the category that has to list all my foreign assets so that's kind of what I meant. These days I believe your bank automatically tracks and reports your R1m annual discretionary allowance anyway - someone in a another thread was saying that their overseas subscriptions and purchases (i.e. Amazon, etc) were automatically blocked by their bank (went over the limit on crypto purchases or something).
Click to expand...

That's more of a SARB issue than a SARS issue. SARB cares about how much money you are moving overseas whereas SARS is more concerned about whether or not you are hiding undeclared income away overseas. The Common Reporting Standard (CRS) has been in place for a while now anyway, so in theory SARS will be aware of your offshore bank account if you provided your offshore bank with your SARS income tax number even if there is no way for you to declare it.
 
garp said:
Well, yes I guess so. I'm in the category that has to list all my foreign assets so that's kind of what I meant. These days I believe your bank automatically tracks and reports your R1m annual discretionary allowance anyway - someone in a another thread was saying that their overseas subscriptions and purchases (i.e. Amazon, etc) were automatically blocked by their bank (went over the limit on crypto purchases or something).
Click to expand...
A few people have told me lifting the allowance from 1m to 4m is not a lot of paperwork, and can be done with the help of your bank. Never had to do it myself, but it is an option. You can also go to 10m, but that needs quite a bit of effort.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X