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Help for a non-resident of South Africa fill in tax returns?

Posted 14 October 2014

I am a non-resident of South Africa because I have been living and working in the UK for the past 2.5 years. I had gotten some (bad!) advice from someone that said that I should continue to fill in my tax return because I have not officially emigrated. He said I should just fill in "0" for income and to state that I am unemployed. I went ahead and did this, but now SARS are asking for additional verification documents. I can still amend my return online. I realise now that I probably didn't have to file a return at all! Is it possible to delete the return I made already? Can I just fix my return online and hopefully not have to provide additional documents? I sent some money (about R50 000) from my UK account to my SA bank account - but that is the only "income" that I have received in SA. I am fully paid up with tax in the UK. Please help!

TaxTim TaxTim says:
14 October 2014 at 12:41

The advice to file was correct in fact as you are still a tax resident of South Africa for obscure legal reasons however you will not pay tax on your foreign earnings. You just need to write a letter explaining your current situation and submit that to SARS.

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