With just under four months remaining to complete your financial emigration from South Africa before legislative amendments kick in and tie up your retirement funds for three years, choosing the right cross-border financial services partner can make all the difference for your stress levels when it comes to managing your money journey. If you’re looking to wrap up your financial affairs in South Africa and move your funds abroad, it’s important to choose a financial emigration partner that will provide you with a financial emigration plan that’s tailored to meet your specific goals.

What is financial emigration?

Also known as formal emigration, financial emigration from South Africa is the conclusion of your financial affairs in the Republic. It is the official process through which you notify the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) that you are living and working overseas and would now like to apply for your status to be changed from “resident” to “non-resident” for exchange control purposes. Once your status has been changed to non-resident, this means that the Reserve Bank must now apply a different, less stringent set of rules to you for exchange control purposes, which makes it easier for you to move money abroad. Having your formal emigration approved by the South African Reserve Bank also allows you to cash in your retirement savings early, before the age of 55.

Is financial emigration necessary?

If you’re living and working abroad with no intention of returning to South Africa, financial emigration is necessary if you’d like to gain immediate access to the funds in your retirement savings. As of 01 March 2021, the event of financial emigration from South Africa being used to trigger the withdrawal benefit (from your retirement annuity, pension provident or provident preservation funds) will have certain restrictions attached. Once legislative amendments come into effect in March next year, South African expats will have to prove their non-resident status for tax purposes in order to activate the withdrawal benefit for their retirement savings before the official age of retirement. Once activated, this benefit can only be utilised once a period of three years has passed.

However, not all hope is lost just yet! The National Treasury has confirmed that South Africans who submit their completed applications to the Reserve Bank before the deadline of 28 February 2020 will be processed according to pre-amendment legislative requirements.

How to financially emigrate from South Africa: leave it all to FinGlobal

Choosing FinGlobal as your financial emigration partner is one of the smartest decisions you’ll make this side of 2020. Here’s why:

1. We’ve got all the right credentials for the job: Everything we do is fully compliant with all relevant financial and tax authorities in South Africa, so you can rest assured your funds are in safe, trustworthy hands.
2. We’ve got all the necessary expertise in-house: From tax specialists, to international financial planners, to exchange control experts – we’ve got all the brain power you could possibly need, under one roof.
3. We’ll get to know you, before we plan your financial emigration: We’ll conduct a confidential assessment to ascertain your financial goals, giving our team of emigration planners all the information they need to provide a personalised financial emigration solution.
4. We’ll handle everything for you, while you track us online: We provide you with signature-ready documentation, handling all of the administrative work for you every step of the way. All you need to do is track our progress online.
5. We’ll provide complete transparency about costs: We charge fixed fees for our services, not percentage-based fees. You’ll always know up front exactly how much you’re in for, cost-wise, before we do anything. No nasty surprises or hidden costs.
6. We’ve got all the right connections in place: We are a Licensed Treasury Outsourced Company with the South African Reserve Bank, and we work with all the major insurance providers, as well as the South African Revenue Service. This means we’re perfectly positioned to handle every aspect of your financial emigration, from start to finish.
7. We understand the time sensitivity of the issue: We do everything in our power to expedite the process for you, offering you the fastest possible turnaround time.
8. You’ll only pay us on completion of the agreed service: We don’t ask for any money upfront. Instead, we are paid when the job is done. This gives you extra peace of mind, knowing that we’re going to hustle to get it done so you’re happy and we can get paid. 

FinGlobal: South African financial emigration experts

We’ve already helped thousands of South African expats in over 105 countries with various aspects of their cross border financial portfolios and now we’re extending our service offering to you. No matter what you need, consider it handled:

• Retirement annuity withdrawal
• Financial emigration
• Tax clearance
• Tax refunds
• Tax emigration
• Foreign exchange
• Pension fund income

With just under four months to go to get your application in with the Reserve Bank, there’s no time to waste. Get started on your financial emigration today.  Leave us your contact details and we’ll be in touch.