The Exit Tax: What South Africa Charges You for Leaving
There is no departure tax at the airport. There is something quieter and, for anyone with assets, considerably more expensive: on the day you stop being a South African tax resident, the law treats you as having sold almost everything you own.
You have not sold anything. You are taxed as though you had.
What actually happens on the day
SARS puts it plainly:
a deemed disposal for capital gains tax purposes takes place at the time when an individual breaks his or her tax residence
and on that day you are deemed to have disposed of your worldwide assets — with one exclusion, which turns out to matter more than it first appears and which we come to below.
Read "worldwide". Not your South African assets — everything, wherever it sits. The offshore share portfolio, the foreign unit trusts, the holiday flat in another country, the stake in a business. All of it is valued at market value on the day residency ends, and the gain since you acquired it becomes taxable that year, without a buyer, a transaction or a cent of cash arriving.
The date is the day you ceased residence, or the day you left, depending on which basis applies to you.
What it costs
Capital gains are not taxed in full. The inclusion rate for an individual is 40% — only that share of the gain enters your taxable income, where it is then taxed at your marginal rate.
For the 2027 year of assessment SARS gives the maximum effective rate for an individual as 18%. That is the arithmetic working: 40% of the gain included, taxed at the top 45% marginal rate, gives 18% of the gain. (Companies come out at 21.6% and non-special trusts at 36%, on an 80% inclusion.)
Before any of that, a natural person gets an annual exclusion of R50,000 of capital gain.
So on a R1,000,000 gain, at the very top of the table, the exit charge is in the order of R171,000 — 18% of the R950,000 that remains after the exclusion. Below the top bracket it is less, because the 18% is a ceiling and not a flat rate.
The number that matters is not the percentage. It is that you owe it in cash, in a year when you have sold nothing, while also paying to relocate.
Telling SARS, and what they will ask for
Ceasing residency is not something that happens because you moved. You have to declare it.
The notification is made through the Registration, Amendments And Verification Form (RAV01) on eFiling, capturing the date on which you ceased to be a tax resident.
The supporting documents are more demanding than most people expect:
- a signed declaration
- a letter setting out the circumstances of your departure
- a copy of your passport or travel diary — including all pages showing customs entry and exit stamps
That last one deserves a moment. SARS is asking you to evidence your movements with stamped pages. Passports get replaced, stamps fade, and some borders no longer stamp at all. If leaving is on your horizon, photograph every page while the passport is current — reconstructing that later is close to impossible.
What else is required depends on which of the three bases you ceased under: being no longer ordinarily resident, failing the physical presence test, or becoming exclusively resident elsewhere under a double tax agreement. They are not interchangeable, and the evidence differs for each.
The property exclusion is not the favour it looks like
Here is the exclusion promised earlier. SARS's wording is:
the individual will be deemed to have disposed of his or her worldwide assets, excluding immovable property situated in South Africa
South African immovable property is left out of the deemed disposal, and that sounds like a gift. It is not.
Property is excluded because South Africa keeps its taxing rights over it no matter where you live. The gain is not forgiven — it is deferred to the day you actually sell. And when a non-resident sells South African property, the buyer is required to withhold a percentage of the gross selling price and pay it to SARS.
So the exclusion moves the liability rather than removing it, and it moves it to a moment when you have less control: the sale, from abroad, with money held back before it reaches you.
If keeping the house was the plan, that is worth building into the plan rather than discovering later.
And note what "worldwide assets" sweeps in besides the obvious. Crypto held on an offshore exchange is an asset like any other for this purpose — it is inside the deemed disposal, not outside it, and it is the holding people most often forget to value on the day.
What changes afterwards
Once you have ceased, you are:
no longer taxed in South Africa on his or her worldwide income, but only on South African sourced income
That is the prize, and it is a real one. Rental from a South African property, South African interest, income from work physically done here — those stay in the net. Your salary abroad does not.
What this page does not answer
Retirement funds. Money in a South African retirement fund follows its own rules on emigration, with its own waiting period. That is a separate regime and it is not sourced here — do not assume this page covers it.
Whether a treaty changes your answer. A double tax agreement can determine residency where two countries both claim you, and the outcome is fact-specific.
Base cost. What you originally paid, and what counts toward it, is the other half of every gain calculation and varies by asset.
The exchange-control side. How much money you may actually transfer out is a Reserve Bank question, entirely separate from this tax one, and the two are routinely confused.
Your number. Every figure above is a rate or a threshold, not a calculation. A deemed disposal across a real portfolio is exactly the situation to pay a tax practitioner for, and the fee will be small next to the charge.
About the source
The deemed-disposal rule, the property exclusion, the notification route and the document list come from SARS, "Cease to be a Resident". The inclusion rate, effective rates and exclusions come from SARS's capital gains tax rate tables, stated for the 2027 year of assessment and last updated 25 February 2026. The 40% inclusion rate is derived from SARS's own published maximum effective rate of 18% against the 45% top marginal rate, shown above so you can check it.
Rates and thresholds change each Budget. Confirm with SARS or a tax practitioner before acting. This is general information, not tax advice.
How does this affect YOUR Money OS?
If emigrating is anywhere in your plans, the exit charge is a cash cost that lands in the year you leave — the same year as flights, deposits and setting up a household. It belongs in the moving budget, not in a surprise assessment afterwards.
Check my free OS score · Capital gains tax calculator
FAQ
Is there an exit tax in South Africa? Not by that name. Ceasing tax residency triggers a deemed disposal of your worldwide assets for capital gains tax, which functions as one.
Which assets are caught? Worldwide assets, excluding immovable property situated in South Africa.
When is the disposal treated as happening? On the day you ceased residence or left South Africa, depending on the basis under which residency ended.
What is the rate? For the 2027 year the maximum effective CGT rate for an individual is 18% — a 40% inclusion rate taxed at the 45% top marginal rate. A natural person's annual exclusion is R50,000.
Why is South African property excluded? Because South Africa keeps taxing rights over it regardless of residence. The gain is deferred to an actual sale rather than forgiven, and a non-resident seller then faces withholding on the gross price.
How do I tell SARS I have ceased? Through the RAV01 form on eFiling, capturing the date you ceased to be a tax resident.
What documents will SARS want? A signed declaration, a letter explaining the circumstances, and a copy of your passport or travel diary including all pages with customs entry and exit stamps — plus further documents depending on the basis.
What am I taxed on afterwards? Only South African sourced income, rather than worldwide income.
Does this cover my retirement fund? No. Retirement funds follow separate rules on emigration that are not covered here.
