South African emigrants: Tallying up the true cost of Saffers moving elsewhere

In the annual budget, finance minister Tito Mboweni announced that there would be moves to discourage emigration, which has depleted the country of specialist skills and taken its toll on national finances through lost taxes. As Tim Powell, Forex Director at Sable International, said in a piece on BizNews recently, the key change for expats is that financial emigration through the South African Reserve Bank is to be phased out from next year (March 2021), and the tax exemption on foreign remuneration you earn as a South African resident will increase from R1m to R1.25m on 1 March this year.  The cost to the country of the steady stream of emigration is difficult to assess, but Johannes Breytenbach, who has a background in scientific research, has made a fascinating study of it. He has looked at a range of costs, to the country and families. Key take-aways include that:

• About two-thirds of emigrants are highly skilled and end up in the top salary brackets in the countries in which they settle;
• They contribute billions of rands to their new homes, helping to stimulate economic growth;
• They enhance the global competitiveness of the land to which they emigrate;

___STEADY_PAYWALL___