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VOLUNTARY COMPLIANCE ENCOURAGED BY SARS In a media statement dated 30 November 2022, the South African Revenue Service (“SARS”) stated that they are encouraging all taxpayers who may be in default on their tax affairs to approach SARS via the Voluntary Disclosure Programme (“VDP”). By coming forward willingly, said taxpayers will receive the help and […]

SARS’ Sherlock Holmes approach to foreign income The number of South Africans earning income abroad has continuously been on the rise. The majority percentage of the South African Revenue Service’s (SARS) tax collections have also consistently been from personal income. These two factors combined, in the context of our residency-based tax system, has massively piqued

Flying towards a tax saving DOUBLE TAX AGREEMENT OR FINANCIAL EMIGRATION? Having visited over 12 international locations in 2022, and engaging with South African expatriates, we can attest to a recent report issued by the United Nations which found that around 900 000 South Africans are already living and working overseas – and indeed, this may

PERFORMING A TAX DIAGNOSTIC DOES NOT TRIGGER A REACTION FROM SARS What is a Tax Diagnostic Report? A tax diagnostic can be thought of as a thorough examination of your historic tax matters on your SARS profile that will give a comprehensive overview of your tax standing, history and current state of tax compliance. This

Who Why and How – Backdating Your Financial Emigration South Africa is a tax resident system. Tax residents of South Africa are taxed on worldwide income and South African sourced income.With the full foreign income exemption being capped in March 2020, it is more important than ever for expats, with a permanent intent to reside

ALARM OVER GROWING BRAIN DRAIN FROM SA 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.

SARS TRACKING FLIGHTS AS PART OF STRICTER NON-RESIDENT VERIFICATION PROCESS 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. Nikolas Skafidas Tax Diagnostic Specialist READ MORE Featured in This is evident from the attached Request for Additional Supporting Documents

Non-Resident Tax Status Reversed? READ THIS BEFORE REAPPLYING TO SARS 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,

EXPATS TAX RESIDENCY RESET: IS SARS CONSTANTLY SHIFTING GOALPOSTS? 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

VALUABLE BENEFITS OF AN EMIGRATION TCS PIN AND SARS NON-RESIDENT TAX STATUS CONFIRMATION LETTER 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