SARS warning for South Africans who want to leave the country

Tax Consulting South Africa’s Team Lead of Cross-Border Taxation, John-Paul Fraser, and Process Specialist of Expatriate Tax, Bronwyn Jacob, warned that the South African Revenue Service (SARS) is clamping down on tax enforcement.

With the 2025 annual tax filing season deadline fast approaching, SARS has quickly tightened its verification processes for taxpayers requesting to update their tax residency status to that of non-resident on a more urgent basis than they would have liked.

Previously, changing tax residency status was a simple “tick box” process. Now, it is a more technically nuanced and document specific procedure that demands accuracy, timing and strategic oversight.

South African expats can no longer resort to a self-assessment of their South African tax residency status without carefully considering the supporting documents they rely upon to break tax residency.

Fraser and Jacob explained that the proliferation of changes on SARS eFiling has reshaped the tax landscape of how taxpayers formally end their South African tax residency.

When it comes to changing a tax residency status, there are two common misconceptions. The first is that the process is automatic when moving abroad, and the second is that it is informal and does not require verification.

Today, the formal SARS submission process must be supported by and requires documentary evidence, including:

• RAV01 Declaration (i.e., Declaration to Cease Tax Residency)
• Copy of passport entry and exit stamps
• Detailed letter of motivation and supporting financial disclosures
• Tax residency certificate or letter from the foreign jurisdiction

“These changes reflect SARS’s strategic commitment to compliance and transparency for regulating those who have or have not yet formalised their non-resident status,” Fraser and Jacob said.

The eFiling system now includes issuing non-generic and non-automated responses to non-residency applications.

This involves manual, non-AI generic responses and stricter validation protocols. All these protocols are designed to ensure that claims are substantiated and verifiably correct.

The image below compares the old, generic generated response and the new, manual intervention response.

Small mistakes have big consequences

“One of the most notable shifts is the elimination of the ‘tick box’ approach on tax returns,” Fraser and Jacob explained.

“Previously, taxpayers could simply tick a box to indicate non-resident status, often without supporting documentation or formal approval. This shortcut is no longer accepted.”

SARS has also introduced a non-resident section on the ITR12 return to ensure non-residents complete only the relevant fields.

“This section is not automatically available but must be activated via the SARS Online Query System,” they explained. Now, SARS requires:

• A formal cessation process, initiated through eFiling
• Issuance of a Notice of Non-Resident Tax Status confirmation letter before any tax return can reflect non-resident status
• Alignment between declared status and required supporting documentation

“Failure to follow this process will result in SARS continuing to treat the taxpayer as a resident,” Fraser and Jacob warned.

This has the practical implication of a compulsory tax obligation to declare worldwide income, exposing expats to penalties, and in the most drastic cases, criminal prosecution.

“Under this new process, even simple errors can have massive consequences. One of the most common and costly errors is mislabelling a document during submission,” they said.

This may seem trivial, but it can trigger the application’s automatic rejection, flag the submission for manual review, delay processing, create audit risk, or raise questions about the taxpayer’s credibility.

“In practice, we have noticed that SARS’s system flags those who are rejected on their first submission, adding extra complexity and woes to an already taxing administrative process,” they said.

This could lead to delays that amount to weeks or even months to resolve, which is a big problem in time-sensitive scenarios.

Even a month’s delay in finalising non-resident status can result in missed filing deadlines, the inability to access funds abroad, and exposure to double taxation. “On top of this, the taxpayer may incur penalties levied monthly,” they warned.

Fraser and Jacob stressed that the SARS non-residency process is no longer a simple “tick box” but a complex compliance obligation that demands attention to detail.

“A single misstep can lead to frustrating setbacks and serious risks of non-compliance. For expats who have opted to have SARS confirm their non-resident status before filing outstanding tax returns, this is not the time to take shortcuts,” they warned.

They urged expats to ensure that their application is accurate, timely, and fully supported. “Getting it right the first time is not just ideal, it is essential,” Fraser and Jacob added.

Issued on Daily Investor by Kirsten Minnaar | https://dailyinvestor.com/finance/101635/sars-warning-for-south-africans-who-want-to-leave-the-country/