In the National Treasury’s latest published Draft Tax Bills, which incorporates the tax proposals made in the 2021 Budget, the amendment proposes a particularly worrying amendment which may upend taxpayers’ carefully planned retirement. The Draft Taxation Laws Amendment Bill (TLAB) proposes an additional “exit tax” to tax retirement fund interests of individuals when they cease South African tax residency. This proposed amendment, due to come into operation on 1 March 2022, would be a further blow to emigrating South Africans wanting to cease their tax residency, following on from the three-year lock-in rule imposed on retirement annuities earlier this year.
It is important to note that the Income Tax Act No. 58 of 1962 (the Act) already makes provisions for an exit tax where a person ceases their South African tax residency. The Act creates a fiction whereby a person who ceases residency is treated as having disposed of their assets (other than immovable prop
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