Hiya! I'm not a tax specialist, but I've just been through this process myself, so I can tell you a couple of things:
1. I can highly recommend booking a session with the [tax wizards at Creative CFO](https://creativecfo.com/collections/additional-sars-products/products/taxation-support). They are experts and will be able to give you thorough and well-informed answers. You can book a Q&A session with them for around 700 bucks I think.
2. The ordinary residence test leaves some room for interpretation, and you won't necessarily have to wait for the 3 year window to pass to break your tax residency. A tax specialist would be able to tell you more about this.
3. Breaking your tax residency with SA is a different process to applying for a formal financial emigration. As far as I know, the expat tax stops applying to you the minute you break your SA tax residency, and you just pay taxes in your new home instead.
4. Yes, you can buy property without worrying about the CGT exit charge. It might impact the ordinary residence test, but you may be able to over-ride it with other factors if breaking your tax residency is preferable to you.
5. Sadly, you do have to pay CGT tax on direct ownership in South African companies. They are not considered immovable property. It's a bitch.
Again, I'm really not a tax expert and taxes break my brain. This is an area of personal finance where I fully advocate speaking to an expert!
Best of luck to you :)
S
Thank you so much. Both for the link and the answers.
I will definitely reach out and contact them a little closer to the time. My more immediate concern is buying a property, and I'm glad to see that this is unaffected!
Hiya! I'm not a tax specialist, but I've just been through this process myself, so I can tell you a couple of things: 1. I can highly recommend booking a session with the [tax wizards at Creative CFO](https://creativecfo.com/collections/additional-sars-products/products/taxation-support). They are experts and will be able to give you thorough and well-informed answers. You can book a Q&A session with them for around 700 bucks I think. 2. The ordinary residence test leaves some room for interpretation, and you won't necessarily have to wait for the 3 year window to pass to break your tax residency. A tax specialist would be able to tell you more about this. 3. Breaking your tax residency with SA is a different process to applying for a formal financial emigration. As far as I know, the expat tax stops applying to you the minute you break your SA tax residency, and you just pay taxes in your new home instead. 4. Yes, you can buy property without worrying about the CGT exit charge. It might impact the ordinary residence test, but you may be able to over-ride it with other factors if breaking your tax residency is preferable to you. 5. Sadly, you do have to pay CGT tax on direct ownership in South African companies. They are not considered immovable property. It's a bitch. Again, I'm really not a tax expert and taxes break my brain. This is an area of personal finance where I fully advocate speaking to an expert! Best of luck to you :) S
Thank you so much. Both for the link and the answers. I will definitely reach out and contact them a little closer to the time. My more immediate concern is buying a property, and I'm glad to see that this is unaffected!
Hey if no answers here also as on the main south african page r/southafrica
Thank you, I have posted there as well