Deregistering with SARS and Official emigration

[Werns]

I have seen people mentioning these two issues before and I am wondering about how one does this and if it is necessary.

I have been out of the country now for 5 1/2 years and have been back a few times for a few weeks at a time. The last time I was there I closed my bank account, so now I have nothing left there.

Up until now I have been filling in the tax forms every year and simply stated my income as zero. This is what the lady at the tax offices told me to do.

But, I don't want to be doing that for years and years. I kept on doing it, because there was a slim chance that we might have gone back, but now, not a chance!

So, how do I de-register? Anyone know?

I tried Googling it, but no luck.

The next issue is the official emigration thing I've heard a lot of people talking about.

Does one have to do this?

If so, how?

Googling this, I noticed that it seems to be mainly to get an allowance to send money out of the country. I don't have any money in the country, so should I still do this?

Thanks for your help.

[vaughanroe]

Heck I reckon if you have no money in the country there is not much point bothering. Just leave things as they are.

I left SA many years ago. I still have one property in the country but do not have any contact with the tax man and once i sell that property I am just going lets things die a slow death all by themselves.

If there is no financial reason on your part then I see no point in bothering with anything.

[benp]

Just a word of caution, unless you have officialy emigrated, SARS will expect annual returns to be filed, even for 0 income, and they have introduced heavy penalties for late returns, it can amount to thousands of rands per tax year.Any profits you make on sale of property here SARS will have first dibs, and withold any penalties due before letting transfer through.

[Werns]

So, should I just stop filling in the yearly tax forms, or should I still de-register?

[SafferBlue]

I was advised by a large financial company that had been doing my tax returns for many years that you only have to file zero returns for a maximum of 5 years.

But they reckoned that, strictly speaking, after 2 consecutive years of non-residency, one could stop doing them if you don' live on the country anymore and have no formal ties (no assets, no income, not a resident).

I stopped doing mine after 2 years, have not had any contact from them since (they do have my contact details) and,quite frankly I don't give a stuff.

Best to leave sleeping dogs lie.

[Gerhardk]

As far as I recall on e-filing you can indicate that you are a not resident. If you have no more property etc in SA, that should do it.

If you have property (vaughanroe) and sell it, in the absence of tax number there can be withholding tax - see article on link below(http://www.accountancysa.org.za/resources/ShowItemArticle.asp?Article=New+Withholding+Tax+for+Non-Residents&ArticleId=1256&Issue=878

In any event, when you became an Australian tax resident (PR and landed) you 'brought' all your assets with you and your property should be valued at that time and any gain / loss after that must be included in Australian income.