To financially emigrate or not?

netcruiser said:
Shouldn't an application made to the Reserve Bank? From the article:

"In order to financially emigrate, application is made to the Financial Surveillance Department of the SA Reserve Bank with proof of the right, either by foreign passport or an appropriate visa, to live in another country. "
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Only if you financially emigrate (which is not a necessity).
 
AdrianH said:
What does this mean? I will be leaving late November and not come back except to visit folks once or twice a year. Does having parents here make me a SA resident?
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Spoken at length about this with my accountant and a tax specialist. There is no specific set of criteria they use to decide whether you are actually a resident or not, or intend to be a resident. It is open to interpretation of the government. If you have a lot of assets and income in ZA (rental/a business) they have the right to classify you as a South African tax resident. I am going to file taxes now as a non-resident as I left in July 2018. Let's see what they come back with in my assessment. I will pay Feb-June taxes for my ZA salary (2018).
 
phiber said:
Spoken at length about this with my accountant and a tax specialist. There is no specific set of criteria they use to decide whether you are actually a resident or not, or intend to be a resident. It is open to interpretation of the government. If you have a lot of assets and income in ZA (rental/a business) they have the right to classify you as a South African tax resident. I am going to file taxes now as a non-resident as I left in July 2018. Let's see what they come back with in my assessment. I will pay Feb-June taxes for my ZA salary (2018).
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Thanks

I am leaving for good late this year. I am keeping rental property though. Guess I'll deal with this when I have to
 
Not sure if this has been covered elsewhere but it doesn't appear to be in this thread - has anyone actually gone through the process of financially emigrating? I've done a bit of looking around and speaking to one company they quoted me R30K! o_O Seems pretty crazy to pay that much, wondering if I can just do all the grunt work myself or do I have to pay some plonker to do it for me at that price, are these companies priced roughly the same?
 
Matt91 said:
Not sure if this has been covered elsewhere but it doesn't appear to be in this thread - has anyone actually gone through the process of financially emigrating? I've done a bit of looking around and speaking to one company they quoted me R30K! o_O Seems pretty crazy to pay that much, wondering if I can just do all the grunt work myself or do I have to pay some plonker to do it for me at that price, are these companies priced roughly the same?
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Please share your experiences/quotes Matt91, I may be going through a similar process soon. These procedures are mostly run-of-the-mill admin which you should be able to do yourself.

However when most people decide to financially emigrate, they are already out of the country...and then it just becomes easier to get someone else to do it on your behalf (extortionate fees aside).
 
Matt91 said:
Not sure if this has been covered elsewhere but it doesn't appear to be in this thread - has anyone actually gone through the process of financially emigrating? I've done a bit of looking around and speaking to one company they quoted me R30K! o_O Seems pretty crazy to pay that much, wondering if I can just do all the grunt work myself or do I have to pay some plonker to do it for me at that price, are these companies priced roughly the same?
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I will be doing it next year sometime. Hopefully you would have done it by then and you can give some advice :)
 
RandomGeek said:
Please share your experiences/quotes Matt91, I may be going through a similar process soon. These procedures are mostly run-of-the-mill admin which you should be able to do yourself.

However when most people decide to financially emigrate, they are already out of the country...and then it just becomes easier to get someone else to do it on your behalf (extortionate fees aside).
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From what I'm hearing you can only financially emigrate once you're out (of SA) - that's why I think these jokers can get away with charging extortionate prices because they basically have you by the short and curlies.
 
Subscribing to thread.

I could be wrong but I don't think you have to be out of SA, I've heard some people fly back to SA just to complete the paperwork. There is no way I'm going to pay these jokers a fortune to do something I can do myself.
 
Why will everybody financial emigrate?

For me, the primary reason is so that I can cash out my RAs. Secondary is for the new tax law reason.
 
AdrianH said:
Why will everybody financial emigrate?

For me, the primary reason is so that I can cash out my RAs. Secondary is for the new tax law reason.
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I think the second reason should be to not be restricted by SARB and the exchange controls if you need to move more than R11m overseas.

Financial emigration will have no effect on your tax status with the new tax law.
 
AdrianH said:
Why will everybody financial emigrate?

For me, the primary reason is so that I can cash out my RAs. Secondary is for the new tax law reason.
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Pretty sure you can do this without a financial emigration, and it has no tax benefit over just cashing it as a non tax resident for example
 
Financial emigration will be of utmost importance if you do not want to be taxed by South Africa when emigrating and earn more than R1m abroad. In addition, you require financial emigration if you want to access things like your RA long before you are 55 or retire.

It is a whole process and you can do it yourself and it is done through your bank. You can also make use of tax practitioners or services like Bidvest Bank - there are heaps of other companies offering financial emigration assistance on Google. The whole process takes around 2-4 months.

Here's more - https://www.bidvestbank.co.za/perso...ernational-payments/financial-emigration.aspx and here too - https://www.resbank.co.za/Regulatio...eAndExchangeControl/FAQs/Pages/Emigrants.aspx
 
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If you want to escape the taxes in 2020, simply ensure that you permanently emigrate, emigrate to a country with no Double Taxation Agreement (DTA), and if you do emigrate to a country that has a DTA, ensure that the DTA will assign your residence to your new country and not to SA, do not buy any properties or assets before you do the financial emigration abroad, ensure that you have no properties or assets left in SA, do the financial emigration application, take your family with you, never return to SA for at least 5 years, for any reason whatsoever, and lastly apply for citizenship whenever and as soon as you are allowed in your new country.

By doing this, SARS will classify you as a non-resident in SA for taxation purposes. This means that you will not be taxed on your income even if you do earn more than R1m abroad.

Here are the countries with DTA's - https://www.sars.gov.za/Legal/International-Treaties-Agreements/Pages/default.aspx and here is a PDF - https://www.sars.gov.za/AllDocs/LegalDoclib/Agreements/LAPD-IntA-DTA-2013-01 - Status Overview of All DTAs and Protocols.pdf
 
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I financially emigrated myself with some guidlines from my bank FNB.
Took me 2 trips to SARS and 3 to my bank and comcluded in 2 weeks but could have done it in 5 days.
Total cost to FNB was about R600.00 for the advice and paperwork. Simple.
 
marco said:
I financially emigrated myself with some guidlines from my bank FNB.
Took me 2 trips to SARS and 3 to my bank and comcluded in 2 weeks but could have done it in 5 days.
Total cost to FNB was about R600.00 for the advice and paperwork. Simple.
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Thanks!

What's my first place to stop, my bank?

Also, what documents do I need?
 
AdrianH said:
Thanks!

What's my first place to stop, my bank?

Also, what documents do I need?
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You start by downloading the MP336(b) here - https://www.resbank.co.za/Lists/Forms/Attachments/126/MP336(b).pdf

Next step, go and apply for a tax clearance certificate at SARS.

Take the MP336(b) and your tax clearance certificate, copy of ID, Proof of residence, marriage certificate, copy of passport to your local bank.

If more documents are required, your bank will ask for them.

The bank will then register the financial emigration with both SARS and SARB.
 
Jopie Fourie said:
You start by downloading the MP336(b) here - https://www.resbank.co.za/Lists/Forms/Attachments/126/MP336(b).pdf

Next step, go and apply for a tax clearance certificate at SARS.

Take the MP336(b) and your tax clearance certificate, copy of ID, Proof of residence, marriage certificate, copy of passport to your local bank.

If more documents are required, your bank will ask for them.

The bank will then register the financial emigration with both SARS and SARB.
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Thanks

This is the info I need.
 
AdrianH said:
Thanks

This is the info I need.
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Just read through the 336(b). There are quite a number of supporting documents that must be attached to the form. Ensure you get them before starting the process. You will save yourself a lot of time.
 
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