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Legislation affecting foreign pensions



Johnwr says:
3 February 2017 at 9:30

Good Day, this is my 2nd question in as many months. Hope I am not overdoing it but this item will be of interest to many and any suggestions you may have will be greatly appreciated by myself. I am 80 years of age and have been retired for 20 years. A significant portion of my pension has been tax free for 20 years as the result of it having been earned whilst I worked outside of RSA. Yesterday (2. 2. 17) my pension administrators advised me that as from 1. 3. 17 the tax free portion will be taxed following recent government legislation. I pay PAYE on my pension which will increase from R250 per month to almost R3000. I have other investments which, when added to the full amount of the pension will push me up at least one tax bracket so that my total monthly tax bill will increase by probably R4000 to R5000 per month. Is there anything I can do about this? it seems unfair to apply the new legislation to existing pensioners such as myself who have no opportunity to make provision for the increased liability.

TaxTim TaxTim says:
6 February 2017 at 15:18

Unfortunately as it has been converted SARS then consider this now to be taxable. Truly unfair, but that is the reason for the change and higher tax rate.

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