This guide is for you if you and your family are planning to move abroad for good, or think you might. Some money matters can only be arranged while you still live here, and others take months. So the guide puts them in order, starting with the cover your family relies on.
12 months or more before you go
1. Put your cover in place
Start here. Life, disability, income protection and severe illness cover can be hard to get once you’ve left, and your health can change while you wait.
PPS is one example. Existing PPS cover carries on if you move abroad, at no extra cost. But PPS can only issue new cover in South Africa. The application, any medical tests and the policy must all be done before you go. Other insurers have their own rules. Ask each one, in writing, what happens to your cover when you live abroad.
2. Understand the three-year rule
You can’t cash in a retirement annuity (RA) or a preservation fund just because you emigrate. The money stays invested. You can only withdraw your retirement pot once you’ve been non-resident for tax for at least three unbroken years. The same applies to your RA’s vested pot (money saved before September 2024).
When you do withdraw, the money is taxed as a withdrawal lump sum. For the 2026/27 tax year, the first R27,500 is tax-free, but earlier lump sums count towards it. After that, the rates run from 18% to 36%.
3. Remember your savings pot
Your two-pot savings pot isn’t locked by the three-year rule. You can still withdraw from it under the normal rules, even after you’ve left. Withdrawals are taxed, so treat it as a backup for emergencies, not part of your moving budget. Our guide to savings-pot withdrawals explains the costs.
4. Plan when you’ll stop being a tax resident
Tax residency doesn’t depend on your passport, and you can’t simply choose it. You stop being resident when the facts show South Africa is no longer your real home. SARS looks at things like your visa, where your family lives and what you still own here. If you were resident only because of the time you spent here, you stop after 330 full days in a row outside the country.
The day before you stop, SARS treats you as having sold your worldwide assets. This is often called exit tax. It’s capital gains tax on growth you haven’t actually cashed in, and the most you’d pay is 18% of the gain. South African property is left out, and retirement fund savings aren’t subject to capital gains tax.
You get no cash from this deemed sale, so plan how you’ll pay the tax, and work it out early.
In the months before you leave
5. Move money within the allowances
While you’re resident, each adult can send up to R2 million abroad a calendar year without a tax PIN. This is the single discretionary allowance (SDA). With a SARS tax compliance PIN, the foreign investment allowance lets you send up to R10 million more.
In the calendar year you stop being resident, you can send up to R2 million as a final, once-off allowance without a PIN. After that, moving your assets out needs SARS approval, called an Approval International Transfer (AIT). Our guide to the R2 million offshore allowance has the details.
6. Decide what to do with your property
You can keep property in South Africa. If you rent it out, the rent is taxed here, because non-residents still pay tax on income from South Africa.
If you sell as a non-resident for more than R2 million, the buyer must hold back part of the price and pay it to SARS. It’s 7.5% for an individual seller, 10% for a company and 15% for a trust. This counts towards your tax on the sale. It isn’t an extra tax. If your actual tax will be lower, you can ask SARS, on form NR03, to let the buyer hold back less. SARS generally takes 21 business days to decide, so apply early.
Assumptions: you sell your house for R3,000,000 after you’ve stopped being resident, and you’re selling as an individual.
- The buyer holds back 7.5% × R3,000,000 = R225,000 and pays it to SARS.
- SARS credits the R225,000 against the tax on your sale when it assesses your return.
This leaves out agent’s commission, bond cancellation and other selling costs.
7. Sort out your bank accounts
Tell your bank you’re moving, and ask what changes for non-residents. Keep an account open if money will still come in or go out here, such as rent, a bond repayment or a tax refund. Make sure you can bank online and receive one-time PINs from abroad. Cancel debit orders you won’t need.
8. Decide about medical aid
Find out what your scheme covers abroad. You’ll probably need health cover in your new country, so arrange it before you cancel here.
Think about coming back, too. If you rejoin after 90 days or more without cover, a scheme can make you wait up to three months before it pays claims. For conditions you already have, the wait can be up to 12 months. From age 35, it can also charge a late-joiner penalty: higher contributions for years without cover.
9. Make wills that work in both countries
If you’ll own things in two countries, one will may not work well in both. A common approach is two wills: one for your South African assets and one for your assets abroad. Each should say clearly that it doesn’t cancel the other. Have each drawn up by someone who knows that country’s law.
After you’ve left
10. Tell SARS and keep filing
Tell SARS the date you stopped being resident. You do this on eFiling, using the RAV01 form. SARS will ask for supporting documents, such as a letter explaining your move and copies of your passport showing entry and exit stamps. You can later ask SARS to confirm your non-resident status in writing.
Your tax return for the year you leave must include any exit tax. After that, you’re only taxed in South Africa on income from here, such as rent. Keep filing returns for as long as you have any.
11. Check your employer fund and UIF
If you’re resigning, decide what happens to your employer’s pension or provident fund. Your vested pot can usually be taken in cash when you leave the job, but it’s taxed and gone for good. Your retirement pot can’t be cashed in. It stays invested until the three-year rule, or retirement, applies.
Don’t count on UIF. It pays unemployment benefits when an employer ends your job or your contract runs out, not when you resign. You must also be available for work and registered as a work-seeker.
If you already receive a pension or annuity from South Africa, ask your provider and SARS whether a tax treaty with your new country changes the tax.
12. Keep good records
Keep copies of the date you left, your letters from SARS, the values used for exit tax, your tax returns, fund statements and property papers. You’ll need them for SARS, for moving money later and for the three-year rule.
Three years later
Once you’ve been non-resident for three unbroken years, you can apply to withdraw your retirement pot and your RA’s vested pot. Your fund will ask for proof that you haven’t been resident for three unbroken years. It then gets a tax directive from SARS, which sets the tax, before it pays you. To move that money abroad, you’ll need an AIT from SARS.
This guide is general information to help you understand your options. It isn’t advice for your situation. Figures are for the 2026/27 tax year (1 March 2026 to 28 February 2027) and were checked on 28 September 2026.