New SARS Travel Form: What You Need to Know with Tax Expert transcript

So this is really just another admin headache. You already have to get visas to go abroad. You have to check in in time, bring your passport, everything. And now you also have to complete this form. >> If I was an expat now or maybe someone working offshore or abroad, I [music] would be worried because like how many people we know who are non-residents just say I'm not going to tell S. How are they going to know? It is legislation that you have to inform.

S [music] you have to complete that form. [music] Hi Marisa, so nice to have you back and um we are ready to talk about the SARS travel form because there's a lot of hype about this new travel form that SARS has implemented. >> Can you tell me a little bit about what is this all about? You know, why now and why are people so afraid? >> Well, okay. So, basically it's about customs duty and VAT. So, if you buy anything anywhere that you didn't pay customs on, then SARS wants their slice to it.

So that's basically what it's about. I think like obviously the cover of it, but I think there's a lot behind it as well and we can go into that. >> So is this just applicable to people that are importing stuff, bringing in goods or every single person flying or shipping coming in and out of South Africa? >> Every person. So any anyone who leaves or comes into South Africa whether you're a South African citizen, a South African resident or a foreigner >> this there's what the new requirement it starts from the 1st of July 2026 you need to complete this online form. >> Yes. >> When you land or sorry and when you go >> and when you go so it's coming to South Africa and leaving South Africa and you can do it from 24 hours before before leaving. >> Okay.

Yeah. And what do they what information do they want you to complete on this form? >> So it's basically your personal information. Where are you going? Who's traveling with you? And then each person traveling needs to submit it. So even if you you're traveling with your minor children, you need to declare it for them as well. And then um very important what you need to declare on it is if you are taking some of your personal belongings with you like maybe jewelry or watches or camera or your laptop even declare that before you go because when you come back you need to declare that as well and it could be seen as you bringing that item back into South Africa and then you're paying customs VAT or duty on that.

So before you go you need to declare what you are leaving with. So valuables. Okay. And then when you come back, you need to declare anything that you bought abroad, so what you are bringing back with you. Anything with a value under 5,000 rand, there's no duty payable on that. And then up to 20,000 rand, there may be duty payable. The custom official will review it and and assess it basically and say if you need to pay something.

But if it exceeds that 25,000 rand, then there will be normal custom duty and BAT payable on it. So you declare what you are coming back with so that that they can yeah do that calculation. >> Okay. So if you are going abroad and you're planning to buy a watch there, can you just declare it as if you leave you left with a watch? [laughter] >> So um let's say it's something like a laptop, you have to add your uh serial number and you won't know that before.

But with a watch, yeah, how how are you going to know? So >> okay. Oh yes, but they I depending on the watch now because I actually have a friend that this was now before this new form came in. It happened earlier this year where he left he bought a watch in Qatar on the airport duty-free um I think duty free you know because they don't have tax that kind of anyway >> and then he flew back. It was a cartier watch quite expensive.

He flew back. He let his wife walk through the with a watch on her wrist. They opened his bags, found an empty cartier box in his bag and then asked, "Okay, what was inside here? Where is it?" >> Questioned him so much that he ended up saying, "My wife has is has the watch on." She went through, she had to come back and they Googled the value of this watch, which was not even what he paid for it. >> Yeah. >> They just took whatever they find found on Google and said, "Okay, this is the value.

Now you have to pay 30 or 40 grand of of I guess custom duties duties on it." And so this is obviously what they now are trying to get more of this kind of tax from from a form like this. Um what exactly what kind of tax are they hoping to get? >> So you pay when you when you bring things into South Africa you pay custom duty which is basically it depends on what kind of item it is that you are bringing back. So there's a a schedule that will have the tariff for that specific item.

So it could be 0% it could be 20%. So if you bought something of a 100,000 rand, you could pay a duty of 20% on top of that. And then you must also pay VAT on that. So the calculation of that is your custom value plus 10% and then plus the duty that we calculated in the first step times 15%. So then it's that 15% on that calculation plus the duty that you paid and that's what you need to pay. So basically with this whole new system s is asking you to voluntarily say I bought all of these items and then to get back to your friend on on his box.

If you are going to bring things and wear it on your wrist you have to be very clever and not bring the box as well. >> Exactly right. So that's amateur move. >> So leave your boxes there and cut off the tags from the clothes that you buy. >> Don't make it look new. >> Yes. Okay. And maybe just wear all of it. [laughter] Then it's not new anymore. Okay. Like anyway, if you're buying expensive clothes, maybe if you watch my channel, you don't buy expensive clothes because you rather invest your money, but if you do, then you would have your like five handbags across your body so that you don't have to pay tax on it.

Okay. So, this um now a lot of people are like worried about this form. For some reason, it has, you know, caused a lot of uh I guess uh fear. So if actually this was already a requirement before but now they're forcing everyone to complete the form. >> Yes. >> Um okay so I actually asked my followers a little bit about feedback on that uh you know if they were checking etc which I will share with you now but can you just first tell me why is it now become mandatory? >> So it's always been a thing I mean customs and vat and all of that has always been a thing but people don't declare it.

You know you walk there with your trolley and you hope that they're not going to stop you. So it was actually implemented in 2022 uh to declare your things and it started I think at Kinshaka airport first and then a year later it was rolled out at all the other airports but now they've made it mandatory to do the online thing and actually if you think about it so many other countries actually also have this online declaration that you do and what they are saying is to uh obviously they want their taxes and to make it easier for you to be honest about these things and also they want to have like a a standard with the rest of the world.

Like when I I traveled to Bali recently and um I did the online declaration before the time that I got there and then when I arrived at the airport, there were like 20 or 30 maybe like of these things that you can just walk by and everyone went very cool, scanned their passport and walked through. But then my South African passport wasn't that cool and it couldn't work. So I had to go stand in the customs queue or the immigration queue after traveling for 24 hours.

I had to stand like in a queue for for for 2 hours and it was midnight. So that was terrible and I think they're just wanting to maybe also standardize it so that we can have that kind of system as well >> as well. But the thing is for I think I have entered a country now I can't even remember which country it was where I had to complete a form like this but when you land for example in Switzerland which which I obviously flew back a lot uh to back and forth from Switzerland when I lived there is there is this red and this green line where you walk through the green line if you have nothing nothing to declare and the red line if you have something to declare you don't ever have anyone entering the red line and the green line you always even if you don't even have something with you you always walk like please just don't stop me you feel so afraid.

It's like when a when a cop passes you, you're always like, "Okay, just act cool. Act cool." Even if you don't have you're not doing anything wrong, but you always feel like they're going to pull you over. So the um they apparently they want to implement something like the red and the green lane. I I read on the SARS website, right? >> Yes. Yes, I also saw that. >> So then they want you to declare the on the form, but then also walk through there and then then they might just randomly pull people to say, you know, show show us the form and can I check your bag?

So apparently if you do declare it, if you complete that online form, then you'll get an SMS or an email back to say to give you instructions. They will tell you go to the customs official when you get there or don't go there. So they will instruct you what to do. >> Okay. So Mariska, I just quickly had to get my phone because I asked my followers on Instagram last night if they have traveled into or out of South Africa.

Were they asked about this form? and and you know so I got a lot of responses by far most people said that no one checked the form so they completed it but no one checked which is uh 90% of people said no one checked the form and then 5% of um no 10% sorry [laughter] my percentages are out so about 10% of people said that they only asked if I completed it and [snorts] then very few said they asked me to show them the form so by far um they're not I I'm also thinking how do they actually you know um implement something like this.

How do they make sure or that's just going to cause a delay at the border, right? >> Yeah. >> Anyway, so now they're asking there's this hype complete the form. No one is actually checking if you completed the form, but they're probably just hoping that now you're going to voluntarily declare things that you bought that you bought, right? >> That you bought. Yeah. Yeah. So, I feel that's the problem with SARS a lot of the time is that they they roll something out but they don't necessarily enforce it or they don't have the manpower, I don't know, to enforce it.

Uh, and that's just going to make that people then don't complete the form. And also, it's not completely if you arrive at the airport and you didn't do it, they're not going to deny you to come into the country. So, you can still get away with not doing it and then the custom officials will help you to complete the form when you do come into South Africa. But I think a lot of people, especially knowing that SARS isn't or whoever there isn't checking everything, they just won't declare it.

So yeah. >> Yes. And I Okay. The thing is there's there's probably a different angle to think about here is that they are now collecting data on when you entered the country, when you left the country, and where you flew from and to, etc. >> Yeah. I mean I'm just like also doubting whether they're actually going to be have the power to to um analyze this data. I'm I guessing with AI it's going to be easier but are they now going to check whether you have actually spent so many days out of the country and should you have been you know paying tax in South Africa etc.

What is the like deeper potential thing that we should be watching out for? >> Yeah I think in my opinion this is really what what it is about. uh and maybe it's not but just because I work with this so much I know what implication that can have. So if I was an expat now or maybe someone working offshore or abroad I would be worried because like how many people we know who are non-residents just say I'm not going to tell SARS how are they going to know you know like how are they going to know how long I was out of the country or if I even was or where I am.

So now they are going to know because it is a it is legislation that you have to inform. you have to complete that form, right? So, I know that a lot of people don't and they don't check it, but the rules are that you have to complete that form. So, based on that, SARS now knows when you're leaving the country and when you're coming back. So, if you left to go to the UK and you're there for 5 years and you never told SARS that you left and also you never declared any tax on on your income, SARS knows this information about you.

And then also people working abroad using the foreign employment income exemption. Uh your requirement to claim that exemption is you have to be out of the country for 183 days of which 60 need to be consecutive and then you get that first 1.25 million run exemption on your income. Now SARS knows when you left because these people sometimes they work offshore on the rigs. They come in and out every month and they need to keep a travel diary to prove all of this to SARS.

Now, if you're doing that every month, SARS now has that record of of you. So, I would say that for people doing that kind of travel for work, you need to make sure that whatever you declare to SARS on your tax return is what you actually traveled because SARS is aware of your of your days now. So, in my opinion, this is maybe a little bit behind why all of this is happening is SARS now has movement of of everyone. M and it's interesting because I think a lot of people thought that SARS is already connected to the immigration system because they people would often say yes but they can just uh link in your with passport control and passport control always scans your passport when you come in or when you go out.

So surely they can just track but they haven't I feel like maybe they can but they I don't feel like they actually talk to each other those two systems. No >> because otherwise they wouldn't have needed to implement something where they can physically ask you to complete the date when you're coming in when you're going out. >> Yeah. I feel like there's so many more intelligence that SARS can use to actually enforce things and you'll be surprised that even something as silly as um the tax doing your tax return with SARS and maybe you applied for an tax clearance certificate with SARS because you're sending 10 million rand abroad your tax return isn't linked to the tax clearances that you applied for like I would think that SARS has they link everything because you're doing other things throughout the year to maybe like a lot of people who did the ARB trading.

You know, SARS isn't automatically putting on your tax return all the ARB trades that you did. So, you'll be surprised at how many times SARS doesn't link things with their actual internal department or you know with customs and and there is a lot more intelligence that they can actually use. So, it's so weird because also their website is not very nice and I feel like sors if you need a consultant to help you [laughter] um you you'll have to pay me a lot but I can come and [laughter] it's just so unuser friendly.

The text is is not it's just like not a good feeling but maybe that's what they want. They wanted to you to be uneasy when you land on the website. Um okay. So the one thing I'm really interested in understanding is there's a lot of foreigners or digital nomads working in South Africa uh traveling in and out obviously pushing up the property prices in Cape Town as a result but they don't pay tax in South Africa or they don't pay income tax in South Africa.

Is this a way that SARS is going to get them to pay tax? Yes, I definitely think they can because now SARS is aware when they came into South Africa and also when they leave and the rule for digital nomads is that if they spend 183 days in South Africa, they need to register for tax and start paying tax here as well. So SARS is now aware of it. They can't also now just go under the radar anymore. and they implemented this new digital nomad visa or actually I'm not exactly sure of what what it's called but it's to get uh digital nomads to be able to spend more time in South Africa. >> Yes. >> But and then they can apparently extend it up to a 3year period.

The thing is this is not just a side side note slash opinion is if they are going to tax these guys too heavily then they are just going to go to other countries where they don't get taxed as heavily because they they really have freedom of movement. So I'm just wondering do they have a positive impact on the economy in a way that we shouldn't should we have a more friendly way of taxing people that could just be anywhere in the world?

Um I mean obviously like this is hard to implement but yeah how would you think why do you think about that? Well, I think obviously for them they have a big benefit of coming to South Africa and it's cheaper. You know, if you're a European living in South Africa, uh for like if if somebody had to go live in that same uh apartment or or place that a European is living, it's so cheap for the Europeans. So, they come to South Africa having an amazing lifestyle because we do, right?

And they get to come live here, have freedom that they don't have in their country. So I think that probably weighing that up could could be one of the benefits for them. Definitely. >> So that's the thing is if if you go to Dubai for example, you might not pay any tax but the cost of living is so much higher as a result of the higher disposable income that everyone has because they don't pay tax. So that means apartments are so much more expensive, restaurants are more expensive.

So I it's probably a good thing if they could tax those foreigners working here because that brings them to a more of an equal playing field with everyone else in South Africa that competes for the same properties, competes for the same rent. Um but now you're competing with someone that doesn't pay tax. And we're also assuming that they don't pay tax in their in their other country that they're coming from. Let's say they're coming from France or from Germany.

Um, we're now assuming that they're not paying tax in Germany, but they might still be taxed. No, but their income is probably like coming into banks account that they're not even declaring to Germany either. Or how do you think? >> I think it's so country specific probably depending on what their country says about foreign income because like South Africa is taxed on your source income regardless of, you know, if you're a South African tax resident, it's it's on your worldwide income.

So regardless if you bring it into South Africa or spend in South Africa, you're going to pay tax on that. So I think it depends on country by country what their tax rules are. I know a lot of countries is only on remittance based that you pay tax. But then where it could also be in their benefit is if they are still a tax resident of their foreign country and they now pay tax in South Africa. We've got the double tax agreement that's going to relieve them in either country.

Right. So >> okay. So at which point would they actually become liable to pay tax in South Africa? the foreigners that work here. >> So if it's a digital nomad then after 6 months after 183 days but if you're a foreigner who just came to live here then a lot of them don't know actually when they trigger South African tax residency. So I meet with so many of them that maybe 2 years or 5 years ago actually was already supposed to become a tax resident but they weren't aware of those dates and SARS is not aware of them at all.

So this can now affect them where SARS is aware when they came into South Africa and that they never left or maybe they left for short holiday. So to become a tax resident in South Africa, you need to meet our physical presence test and it's looked at over a 5-year period and in each of the five years you need to have been here for 90 days every year and then in total in the 5 years you have to be here for 915 days. If you meet both of those requirements, you'll become a tax resident on the first day of the sixth year.

And then that means that their total worldwide income is now subject to tax in South Africa. So SARS can also have access to that information of foreigners who came to South Africa and never left. Um and then yeah like like it's important for them to know this to not leave this for 2 years later, 5 years later. I've had a lot of people that I had to help to backdate their 5 years returns. So this will actually also become a problem then I I've looked at this physical presence test many times and um it's the 90 days per year is an easy one to meet if you spend a lot of time in South Africa but the 915 days over a 5year period because that roughly equates to just over 180 days per year.

So that's the hard requirement, a hard requirement to meet. Meaning that means you have to spend a lot of time in South Africa before you actually meet that requirement. And that you have to also meet it's not only 90 days per year in the 5 years, it's additionally you have to be 950 days before in over 5 years before you meet that. So that's a harder one to trigger, right? >> It is. So >> it can save you. >> It it can save you.

So there's ways to go, okay, how can I not become a tax resident? So either you just come less than 915 days and that 180 days that you explained you don't have to be that every year. So let's say for the first year you are here for 90 days you meet that requirement. Then next year you're for 150 days then maybe 200 days then maybe again just 100 days. Um and then if all of those days in the total 5 years calculate to the 915 days and you were never under the 90 days then you meet it.

So I always say to people if you want to avoid that then just make sure that either in one of those five years you come less than 90 days. So then it starts all over. So in the fifth year come maybe for 85 days or make sure you're under the 915 days. But that one kind of then keeps you in that loop all the time. So if you do in the fifth year less than 90 days, then that 5 years start all over again because it's you have to be here 90 days for five consecutive years.

Whereas if you make 90 days for 5 years in a row and you're counting the 915 days, then in year six you could trigger it again. >> I see. Okay. So that's a smart one. So it's you almost have to have four good years and then plan to suffer for one year in the winter [laughter] >> and then you can't come and have the sun and then you at least you have another five years to four years to be free again. Right. Okay. >> Okay.

That's a good tip actually. Um the last thing I want to just close off here is to actually get back to the form which was kind of the base of all of this discussion now is if someone is now leaving the country or coming into the country. Um any tips for them in terms of should they be worried about this? Uh most people when you're just traveling back and forth this is like actually not a problem. It's just a little bit of an admin additional admin head headache.

Like imagine you don't have Wi-Fi when you land and now you have to go and find Wi-Fi. the airport Wi-Fi is most of the time so crappy what what kind you know any tips for them should they be worried what should they do >> so everything that I have read is that there will be a customs official and they'll help you to do it when you do come here if you didn't have Wi-Fi or you couldn't access it so it will be fine you're not going to be in trouble if you didn't do it >> okay and anything to worry about unless you bought something there you don't really there's nothing to worry about right >> no definitely not I think really just If you were somebody who used to hide your days from SARS, then be worried about it definitely.

But in terms of your customs things, declare it. You got to pay the tax on it anyway. >> Okay. People always used to ask, "How are they going to know?" >> Yes. >> This is how they're going to know. >> This is how you're [laughter] going to know. Definitely. >> Okay. Thanks, Marisa. And um I look forward to having the next chat with you soon. Yes. Thank you. >> [music]