SA in lockdown or just confused?

marco

marco

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Emigrated to Portugal in 2014 then...

SARS after 3 years still shows my e-filing page for 2014 as " human intervention needed" or something so I could not file Exit Tax as this needed closure.

Three years later my SA accountant manages to file my 2014 Exit Tax and I receive a huge tax bill.

The accountants fees are outrageous as I did all the calculations. She worked for a company but requested me to pay the fees to her private account. No VAT added.

I complained to the owner of the company and have not heard from the accountant for weeks.

SARS sent me an email stating that I have ignored demands for the Exit Tax since 2014 and will penalize me. FFS. I volunteered the Exit Tax and SARS had not sent any reminders.

Just when I thought it could not get worse..... it did.

Transferred money from my broker account to FNB to pay SARS.

Money disappeared for 2 weeks. Gone from broker account but not found in my FNB account.

Eventually it was found and credited to my account without explanation.

I instructed FNB to pay SARS as they said they would but sadly they have not so I missed the deadline and have now been penalized further by SARS.

****e never ends in SA.
 
Presumably you hired an accounting firm with suitable standing so you can complain to the professional body they are registered with, no?

marco said:
Money disappeared for 2 weeks. Gone from broker account but not found in my FNB account.
Click to expand...
Yeah that's roughly how long intl transfers take. 1-2 weeks. Which is ridiculous but that's a topic for another day.

She worked for a company but requested me to pay the fees to her private account. No VAT added.
Click to expand...
Now that seems decidedly shady. Again - worth reporting to whatever professional body has "jurisdiction".
 
Let me explain a bit further. When you cease to be SA resident then all your assets except fixed property will be deemed as sold on the day you leave and re-purchased at the same price the day after.

Capital Gains Tax will have to be paid as an Exit Tax and this will reset your base cost to a new value going forward in your new country of residence.

Most DTA's state that CGT is only payable to the country of residence. The date of residency however is not defined in the DTA so Domestic Tax Law will prevail.

SA Domestic Tax Law states that if you were ordinarily resident in SA then the date of exit will be the end of your tax residency. CGT will not apply after this date.

Portugal has a different law. If you have a home available for long term even on the last day of the tax year then you are considered tax resident for the whole year.

This is now a conflict of residency status. One cannot be tax resident in 2 countries at the same time but I seem to be.
Portugal will not accept the deemed sale and reset of my base cost as I was not SA resident but Portuguese resident for that year.

I would rather pay SA tax as the tax here for CGT is 4x higher. My second appeal here has failed. My €12k (R180k) bill prevails as does the R57K in SA. Not done fighting this yet.
 
HavocXphere said:
Presumably you hired an accounting firm with suitable standing so you can complain to the professional body they are registered with, no?


Yeah that's roughly how long intl transfers take. 1-2 weeks. Which is ridiculous but that's a topic for another day.


Now that seems decidedly shady. Again - worth reporting to whatever professional body has "jurisdiction".
Click to expand...

Takes me 3/5 days max. Never 2 weeks, even for large transfers.
 
f2wohf said:
Takes me 3/5 days max. Never 2 weeks, even for large transfers.
Click to expand...

My international transfers take 3/5 days but this was a local transfer that should have taken seconds.
 
marco said:
Emigrated to Portugal in 2014 then...

SARS after 3 years still shows my e-filing page for 2014 as " human intervention needed" or something so I could not file Exit Tax as this needed closure.

Three years later my SA accountant manages to file my 2014 Exit Tax and I receive a huge tax bill.

The accountants fees are outrageous as I did all the calculations. She worked for a company but requested me to pay the fees to her private account. No VAT added.

I complained to the owner of the company and have not heard from the accountant for weeks.

SARS sent me an email stating that I have ignored demands for the Exit Tax since 2014 and will penalize me. FFS. I volunteered the Exit Tax and SARS had not sent any reminders.

Just when I thought it could not get worse..... it did.

Transferred money from my broker account to FNB to pay SARS.

Money disappeared for 2 weeks. Gone from broker account but not found in my FNB account.

Eventually it was found and credited to my account without explanation.

I instructed FNB to pay SARS as they said they would but sadly they have not so I missed the deadline and have now been penalized further by SARS.

****e never ends in SA.
Click to expand...
Admin issues are always a mission - I can imagine a real issue when doing an exit tax. My accountant previously wrote letters to SARS in terms of penalties and circumstances and has received leniancy on additional penalties, so that you at least only pay the required exit tax as opposed to additional costs that were out of your control.
 
I have a SARS accountant dealing with my tax and he is very understanding of my situation and is not penalizing me or adding interest. I have CC'd him with all my correspondence with FNB and my accountant and he totally understands my problems now that we have corresponded.
 
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