As a South African resident over the age of 18 with a valid tax number, each calendar year you can take up to R10 million out of the country for the purposes of investing in foreign assets under the Foreign Investment Allowance (also known as the Foreign Capital Allowance).
A tax clearance certificate in terms of foreign investment is required in order to transfer funds out of South Africa under the Foreign Investment Allowance. This can be obtained easily through eFiling, you just need to ensure that you request the tax clearance for foreign investment purposes.
Your Foreign Investment Allowance can be utilised for a wide range of investments including:
- Foreign bank account
- Property purchase
- Share investments
- Bond investments
Investing in Property
JP and Maré recently sold their farm in Mpumalanga and decided that they wanted to invest some of the proceeds in a townhouse in Sydney, close to where their son and grandchildren now live.
The purchase price of the property was R12.9m, so they both utilised their Foreign Investment Allowance to send money across to Australia for the purchase of the property in their joint names.