With its diverse culture, breathtaking landscapes, and well-developed infrastructure, South Africa offers expats an exciting lifestyle and a wide range of opportunities.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about relocating to South Africa from a personal tax perspective, including tax residency, income tax, special tax regimes and tax return obligations.
TaxPilot recommend that you organize your affairs in good time to get ahead and make the most of favorable tax treatment while making sure you’re meeting your tax return obligations.
South Africa follows a residence taxation model. If you are resident, you will pay tax worldwide incomes. If you are non-resident, you will pay tax on local incomes only.
if you are present in South Africa on more than 91 days in the current tax year and more than 915 days in the previous five tax years.
if you are domiciled in South Africa.
Tax on property and share sales
Tax on value of owned assets
Tax on assets passed to heirs
Tax to contribute to state welfare
If you receive incomes overseas while you are living in South Africa, you may find the source country, as a starting point, continues to tax the income which may cause double taxation unless you are using special tax regime.
Double taxation agreements can be used to mitigate double taxation and receive tax free income. As such, the more double taxation agreements a country has, the better, as agreements will ensure you’re not taxed twice and even better, ensure your income is tax free.
At present, South Africa has 81 double taxation agreements signed.
