Taking money over

[Swerwer]

Hi Swerwer

There is a form that you have to complete just a one-pager thing. You take it to your local tax office the last time I did it they told me it should take 15 workdays to issue your tax clearance certificate. They called me after 5 days and told me it was ready for collection. The most important thing is all your tax should be up to date.

That form you make a certified copy of and the day you want to do the transfer you take it to the bank. As I am typing this message I just received an email form my bank in SA to confirm that they will transfer some money in 2 days time.

Transferring money is much simpler then one think just make sure someone your stuff (Tax) is up to date and see to it that someone you can trust has full signing authority on your SA bank accounts.

I have looked on SARS's website and the Application for a Tax Clearance Certificate can be found here

[celeste]

I have looked on SARS's website and the Application for a Tax Clearance Certificate can be found here

Hi Guys

Thanks so much for that advice about the credit card...don't want to do that if it is illegal! I thought it sounded too good to be true.

Cheers

Lyse

[MANDYL]

This is an old topic but maybe it can be re-opened and discussed with other members who have now recently been lucky enough to make the big move. We should be in Oz anytime from July 2007. Will be putting the house in the market soon and obviously this money etc will be going into our bank account. What are the basic rules to take over your money ? I read that the banks can freeze your account. What happens then and how must you prevent this ?

[Cindylou]

Hi Mandy

The basic rule in South Africa is that if you are non resident your bank must ensure that all your accounts are blocked and flagged as non resident accounts and any access to the funds in the accounts must comply with SARB regulations.

There are a number of postings regarding the various financial issues you face when leaving SA - I would suggest that you read through all of them to get some idea of what choices you are going to make!

Regards

Cindylou

[Guest colton]

We put a huge amount of money into our RSA credit card and brought that over with us as we were "relocating" . What a big mistake. The bank back in RSA stopped the credit card usage here as we were only allowed to do 5 withdrawals a month. It made no difference to them that we had a "no withdrawal limit", they just put it on for our "own" protection they said.

Still now 6 months down the line we are battling to get our money out of our ABSA account. I personally wouldn't suggest going the credit card way.

[Johan Swanepoel]

There is another option.

You could get a Cash Passport from an institution like Rennies. Then also give someone power of attorney that will enable them to put money on your Cash Passport from SA.

The Cash Passport is a debit card based in the Foreign Currency.

In our case most of our money will only be available in a couple of months, then my mother will deposit the cash into our Cash Passport. If you have less than the holiday allowance this is a good legal way. If you have more, get a Tax certificate and you should be fine.

Regards

Johan Swanepoel

[Rodz]

From the posts that i have read on this topic some people are moving big bucks. I am a bottom feeder and only taking about 100k out.What would be the best way please?Thanx

[Johan Swanepoel]

Well if you have all of it at hand, then you need to decide on what you think the Rand will do.

If you think it will weaken, then exchange your money now (Cash Traveller Cheques, Cash Passport) of you think the Rand will strengthen then leave it on your Rand based Credit card and spend the money here as and when you need it.

I would say exchange at least a $1000 (maybe $500) in cash anyway.

Regards

Johan Swanepoel