Formal emigration process

[IamInACT]

EMIGRATION PROCESS:

1) 1st Step:

The completion of the Form MP336b (which is attached) or from The Reserve Bank’s website: www.reservebank.co.za

The following Certified Copy documents of all parties emigrating are required to accompany the completed Form MP336b:

South African Identity documents

Passports

Air tickets (if you have same)

Certificate of Citizenship or proof that you have the right of permanent resident in your new country of permanent residence

A letter confirming the number of persons that left and the amount of Travel Allowance and Offshore Allowance that has been availed of (this will only apply if you are completing the emigration formalities after you have departed from South Africa)

2) 2nd Step:

The Bank will have to take control of the person/s remaining South African assets. All insurance policies, share certificates, deeds to fixed property etc (pertaining to South Africa) held by yourselves are to be handed to us for safe keeping and will be regarded as “Blocked and to the order of the South African Reserve Bank.†All your families Assets and Liabilities in South Africa are to be declared on the MP336b, including all anticipated outstanding payments to be credited to the account after your departure.

3) 3rd Step:

You would have to apply for a Tax Clearance for Emigration Purposes from the Receiver of Revenue. You or a local representative appointed by yourself are to take care of the tax formalities. Unfortunately the Bank is prohibited from acting as a Tax Representative. If you are abroad, we would require a signed letter requesting us to hand Certified Copy of the Form MP336b to: Full Names and ID Number

Once the MP336b is completed, and in our possession we will photostat the form and

attest it as being a true copy of the original. This copy must then be presented to the

Revenue office by you or your representative to support the application for Tax

Clearance. A request may be made to the Revenue office to post the Tax Clearance

Certificate/s directly to us at P 0 Box 2280, Durban, 4000

4) All liabilities including Credit Cards in South Africa will have to be settled prior to departure

5) Once all of the above have been completed and we are in possession of the

Original Tax Clearances, you will be regarded as Emigrants after your departure from

South Africa. Being such would entitle a Family Unit to a Foreign Capital Allowance

(FCA) of R4 000 000-00 and a Single Person R2 000 000-00

If any Offshore Allowance has been availed off, then this amount will be deducted fron your Foreign Capital Allowance amount, balance thereof can be remitted abroad

If your Assets exceeds R4million, then no funds will be transferred abroad without prior approval from The Reserve Bank (we will have to submit an application to them)

If your emigration procedure has started after your departure from South Africa, a formal application will have to be submitted to the Reserve Bank (SARB) for the applicants to be regarded as emigrants. Only upon SARB’s approval, can any FCA be remitted abroad.

SARB can take between 6-8 weeks to respond to us from the date our application is submitted. Cost of mail application is R710-00

6) All existing accounts will remain at the branch in which the accounts are held at, however after the above process all activity will be controlled by the Non Resident Centre. The status of the account/s will be converted to ‘Non Resident Blocked.†The Autobank facility will be delinked which would not allow Internet access either. Any acount packages that have been enjoyed in the past will unfortunately be discontinued.

7) Our Cost in respect of the Emigration Process for 2009 is:

Minimum R710-00; with an Hourly rate of R275-O0; Maximum R5450

Safe Custody fees are R207-00 per annum

Safe Custody lodgement fee R13-OO for the 1st 4 items plus R3-OO per additional item

Please note both fees are subject to change

We trust that we have been of assistance. Please do not hesitate to contact us should you require any additional information

[Toitjie]

wow you did some homework! thanx

are you thinking of going this route? I just dont see how anyone would be willing to do this, freezing your assets..thats bad

I will definitely not go this route (dont have that kind of money )

[xyz]

Great post and thankyou ! Just a quick one around formally immigrating(as above for RI withdrawls) and inheritance gains/tax. Would you, once immigrated, experience any difficulties in claiming any inheritance from SA ?

cheers

[Mara]

Hi xyz

Absolutely, if you HAVE NOT formally emigrated.

[bluebonnet]

Am I glad I have it all behind me. Mara is right.

[xyz]

So I guess its better then to formally immigrate on the two counts above(RA's and inheritance)-yes ?

Cheers

[Tex]

So I guess its better then to formally immigrate on the two counts above(RA's and inheritance)-yes ?

Cheers

yes...that seems to be the only route we can take to get our RA's & liquid assets out.....

BTW, thanks WannabeACT for the info. We're with Std bank too so very useful.

Tex

[IamInACT]

No worries .... Formally emigating also enables you to get your money out earlier at a reducsed tax rate if you are still young ... Don't just cash in your RA's, Pension funds, Providents funds and preservation funds ... do all your home work as it could COST you money cancelling everthing before you leave ...

@Toitjie .... You would only do this once you have left SA and are 100% sure that Aus is the place for you ... If you are happy, why leave anything behind.

[Zululand]

Would there be any problems encountered if one tried to "formally emigrate" after living abroad for say 5 years? In other words, is it possible to keep all bank accounts, property bonds, insurance policies, etc. alive in SA until some time in the future (when it's more convienient to sell) then return to SA to wrap everything up and formally emigrate?

Also, if total SA assets/Inheritance is likely to be less than R4m per couple, is it not better/easier to go the foreign investment route instead of formally emigrating? Is there not also a R180k per year "trickle facility" to slowly get money out of SA as a SA citizen living abroad?

[Tex]

Would there be any problems encountered if one tried to "formally emigrate" after living abroad for say 5 years? In other words, is it possible to keep all bank accounts, property bonds, insurance policies, etc. alive in SA until some time in the future then return to SA to wrap everything up and formally emigrate?

It is possible to do this, as we're in that position now. But it causes "residency" problems....see below

Also, if total SA assets/Inheritance is likely to be less than R4m per couple, is it not better/easier to go the foreign investment route instead of formally emigrating? Is there not also a R180k per year "trickle facility" to slowly get money out of SA as a SA citizen living abroad?

Because we have been out of SA for a few years, SARB rules around allowances dictate that we cannot make use of the usual annual travel allowance. They have a whole document dedicated to describing what you can and cannot do. Maybe we could use the allowance for living abroad, but it requires reserve bank clearance and support by providing full income / expenditure details. Its an onerous solution, so I'm not even going to try it. I also investigated using the foreign investment route (asked Standard Bank in June 09') but that also did not fit our circumstances well. So we'll use the formal emmigration process instead - it seems to be the most workable of all the evils.

Tex

[Heymanse]

We're with Standard Bank as well and formally emigrated when we left SA. Our Exchange Control officer has always been very helpful and I've never had any issue that they couldn't advise me on or solve for me. Although it was a bit of effort in the beginning to have everything set up, as in WannebeACT's list, it was in the end worthwile doing.

[billabong]

Can someone please advise exactly what problems one would have with inheritance money?....Do you just get taxed a lot or ?...

[Jacques Voogt]

Thanks.

One thing I do not get. I can live in RSA and buy property in AUS as investment.

Or I can live in AUS and buy property in RSA as investment.

But I can't keep my investment in RSA if I formally emmigrate to AUS.

It's like I have to seel it to the bank on Monday morning, Fly over the Monday evening and buy it again by Tuesday afternoon from AUS if I want to keep it.