South Africa’s expat tax is coming

South Africa’s expat tax is coming – and there’s only one way to legally avoid it

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The unforeseen consequence of this, he said, is that it incentivises skilled South Africans abroad to simply not come back.

“The skilled talent – and we have such a small base – is saying, ‘you know what, I need some experience globally for a period of time, and I will come back’ – and SARS is thinking of a short term gain – let’s tax them.”

“These skilled people will now go ‘hang on, actually why should I come back?'” he said.

It’s what I would do… just renounce and not come back.

It’s a lesson New York also learnt quite recently.

My impression of younger people today is that they are simply not as patriotic or wedded to their countries as they used to be. Make things difficult for them here, and they’ll simply leave and not come back.