FFS people, why is this so hard.............
South Africa has a residence-based tax system.......so SARS use 2 tests to determine if you are resident or not.
The first boils down to a court looking at your circumstances and rendering a verdict on where you live.....
The second requires your physical presence at least 91 days a year. Plus a couple of other time based criteria. I don't know who of you get 91 days leave to spend in SA each year!
Here is the text available for free from the SARS website.....
RESIDENT
In principle, the first step in determining the normal tax liability of any natural person
in South Africa is to establish whether or not that natural person is a “resident” as
defined in section 1.
Two separate tests are applicable to determine whether or not a natural person is a
resident, namely –
• the ordinarily resident test; and
• the physical presence test.
2.1 Ordinarily resident test
This concept means that a natural person is a resident if his or her permanent
home, to which he or she will normally return, is in South Africa. A continuous
physical presence is not a prerequisite to be ordinarily resident in South Africa.
The courts have held, in ascribing a meaning to the concept “ordinarily resident”, that
it refers to, for example –
• living in a place with some degree of continuity, apart from accidental or
temporary absence. If it is part of a person’s ordinary regular course of life to live
in a particular place with a degree of permanence, he or she must be regarded as
ordinarily resident;
• the place where his or her permanent place of abode is, where his or her
belongings are stored, which he or she leaves for temporary absences and to
which he or she regularly returns after these absences;
• a residence that is settled and certain and not temporary and casual; or
• where a person normally resides, apart from temporary or occasional absences.
I have skipped the physical presence test because of the length of the text. Feel free to download it here.....
http://www.sars.gov.za/AllDocs/OpsDo...al%20Guide.pdf
You do not need to formally immigrate to become non-resident and if your tax advisor has you claiming nil tax returns on the basis of 183/60 absence from the country, fire him because he is useless.
Now I don't know where the f&ck you guys live but I live in Dubai. There is no court that is going to claim otherwise after looking at my circumstances.
I have had this argument several times with Customs and Excise in CT as they cannot get their heads around the fact that I am a non-resident tourist when I enter SA, even if I have a SA passport. This allows me to take my very expensive bicycle into the country without any VAT & Import duties......I have even had to take the matter up with the dept of legal interpretation to try and get a sensible answer. They have finally agreed and I carry his email with me everytime I go to SA as a visitor.
Humble Guy....
The effect is that if you are a South African tax resident, and you earn foreign remuneration, that foreign remuneration will not be exempt unless it is already taxed in the country where the services are rendered. Effectively, the free ride is over. The amendment ensures that you will pay tax either in SA or abroad
I'm sorry guys even without the facts that we have, I can never see them moving from their current system. It's going to be too expensive, onerous and impractical to enforce. But that is a lengthy discussion for later. They are hitting the soft target.....guys that they can reach out and touch if they need to. I feel for the contract guys cos this is going to hit them hard but it is a non-event for us.