Recently I was contacted by a South African from the UK to assist him in filing a tax emigration application. On requiring if any income tax returns were outstanding he replied “yes”.

He left South Africa in August 2008 and has not filed any South African income tax returns since 2008. We have now filed it and the South African Revenue Services (“SARS”) was, in fact, owing him some money. As he, however, did not submit the income tax returns on time, he is owing SARS more than R23,000 in “administrative penalties”. SARS has last year started raising administrative penalties per month on income tax returns that are outstanding.

Please, therefore, make sure that if you leave South Africa that you write to SARS and inform them that you are leaving South Africa. They will then mark your income tax number as “inactive”.

Please further take note that you still need to file your last income tax return!

You are welcome to contact Fanus Jonck (tax@jonck.net) on filing your income tax return or to answer your income tax query.