Tax on rental and investment income when not living in SA

[lah1308]

I am trying to working out if I should be paying anything or declaring anything to the SA tax man now that I am living in the UK.

I am slightly different to most South Africans in that I was born in UK, but moved to SA when I was 2 and grew up in SA. In my SA ID book I am considered a non SA citizen, I do however have permanent residence.

I have been in the UK for about 6 years and have 2 properties in SA which I receive a rental income on, I also have various investments, one of which recently went through a change in structure which involved transferring of assets out of a partnership into a new company which is taxable.

Since I left SA I have not heard from SARS and have not submitted a tax return. I still hold my bank accounts there which have money going in and out of them from the various rents etc. My guess is I am meant to be declaring this to SARS ? And possibly paying tax on it ?

I can't find much on the internet about it so any help would be appreciated...

Thanks

[Nickolai Naydenov]

Well the law states that you have to pay tax in the country you live in so you should declare the income in the UK. All property you will pay CGT if you sell the property, the company should be taxed anyway here. What portfolios are you investing in as far as I know there's double taxation agreement that SA has with the UK, I need more details on everything in order to give you a better suggestion

[DavidvN]

Unfortunately, in this case, because you are non-resident for the tax year, the source-based tax rules will apply. This means that the source of your rental income needs to be investigated to ascertain where those funds are taxed.

In this case, the source would be South Africa, as that is where the income generating asset is location (the properties being rented).

You must submit a tax return here in SA, as well as ensure you are registered for provisional tax and submit your IRP6 every 6 months.