The Mauritian government recently announced several incentives that make Mauritius an attractive option for foreigners to live, work and invest in.

Tarissa Wareley, an Immigration Specialist at Xpatweb, says that besides cutting the minimum investment needed for an occupation permit (OP) as INVESTOR, to half. The government also relaxed other entry requirements that make it easy for someone with a spouse and elderly parents to move to Mauritius. 

“Under the INVESTOR scheme granting an Occupation Permit (OP) - which lets you reside and open a business in Mauritius - has been halved from $100,000 (R1.7 million) to $50,000 (R870,000).

This investment remains under your control, invested in your business, with only 500 USD  (R8500) as the processing fees for the OP. If you have an OP, you can bring your parents and spouse into Mauritius as dependents without having to obtain work permits for them. The permits have also been extended from three to 10 years,” says Wareley. “Other OP options include schemes such as “professionals”, self-employed, and retirees, aimed as further easing of living and working on the rainbow island” she adds.

Wareley  believes her company has seen a rise in the number of enquiries from South Africans who are considering moving to Mauritius. “Those looking to move to Mauritius have been pleased to learn that the process has become more affordable, streamlined, and attractive to residents, entrepreneurs and business owners,” says Wareley.

Favourable tax rates for residents of Mauritius
Lead Tax Advisory of the corporate limb of Temple Group, Vandana Boolell, and Lead Corporate Advisory , Aditi Boolell, say that Mauritius’ tax system is one of the most efficient and linear, with a maximum tax rate of 15%, and with exempted income of up to USD$15 000 (R261 000) per annum. They confirmed that there are tax benefits for South Africans moving to Mauritius.

“The effective tax rates for individuals are well below those applicable to South Africa and other countries. An important difference is that Mauritian residents are only taxed to the extent of the money that they bring into the country. Any global income that isn’t sent to Mauritius won’t be taxed by the Mauritius Revenue Authority,” says Vandana Boolell.

Other key tax benefits include no withholding taxes; no capital gains taxes on property sales, sales of shares, or assets; no taxes on dividends or income; and all income being repatriable, with no caps on FOREX and with no limit on tenure.

Attractive tax policies for entrepreneurs and businesses 
Vandana Boolell says that there are a variety of tax as well as customs and duty benefits for companies operating out of Mauritius, with corporate tax being capped at 15% and the effective tax rates for companies being well below 15%.

“Freeport and export activity is capped at 3%, with export activity also being exempt from the country’s 15% VAT. Mauritius also benefits from the various Free Trade Agreements like COMESA, SADC and CECPA, among others.

Other incentives include tax holidays of up to eight years for companies in certain sectors, as well as headquarters of companies - under certain conditions - that move to Mauritius. Favourable tax policies and the newly announced relaxed immigration requirements means that it now makes more financial sense for South African businesses to set up shop in Mauritius,” concludes Vandana Boolell.

Xpatweb and Temple Group Mauritius are jointly hosting a FREE webinar to help South Africans further understand the changes that came to light during the recent Mauritius Budget Speech.
The webinar takes place via Zoom on Thursday, 9 July 2020. Secure your place soonest by contacting Rebecca Minnie on event@taxconsulting.co.za.

ENDS

MEDIA CONTACT: Rosa-Mari Le Roux, 060 995 6277, rosa-mari@thatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za

ABOUT Xpatweb:
HOLISTIC EXPATRIATE SOLUTIONS
The Xpatweb group has been in existence for over 14 years and includes over 90 professionals, including immigration specialists, mobility practitioners, tax practitioners, attorneys, and chartered accountants. They offer holistic, client-centric, and fully compliant expatriate and work visa solutions. Clients can expect an exceptional end-to-end service that starts with an initial technical meeting to discuss any past challenges, a recommended optimal solution, and the creation of a roadmap and protocol for service delivery. They also offer an on-premises immigration audit service to confirm expatriate employees hold legally obtained, valid visas, and that their duties align with their visa conditions. In addition, their unique online immigration tracking system helps you to easily manage and track expatriate assignees across the globe, is fully customisable and dashboard-driven, and provides a secure repository for storing assignees’ documents.

For more information on Xpatweb please visit:
Website:  http://www.xpatweb.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/work-permit-south-africa/
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/xpatweb/

​

Authored by: Jean du Toit, Admitted Attorney & Head of Tax Technical at Tax Consulting SA

The Minister of Finance delivered an Emergency Budget on 24 June 2020, which can be described in diplomatic terms as gloomy, and uneventful.

Most notably, despite speculation by some to the contrary, the Minister did not impose any new taxes, which leaves SARS with no respite as it faces a mighty revenue shortfall of around R300bn.

One may expect SARS to be bleak about this, but by not coming to SARS’ aid, the Minister has taken a massive weight off Commissioner Kieswetter’s shoulders.

The Emergency Budget gives away the fact that there is perhaps no expectation that SARS will even come close to its collection targets.

The Minister of Finance has indicated that the funds will be sourced by other means, seemingly letting SARS off the hook to a degree.

In other words, it appears that life has handed SARS too many lemons to make lemonade, in these extraordinary times.

From here onwards, one foresees SARS embarking on two possible paths in the coming fiscal year, or a hybrid of the two.

The obvious, but difficult, answer to this equation is to try and stem the tide by prioritising collections– most taxpayers and their tax advisors appear to expect SARS to be extremely aggressive in its collection of taxes in the coming months, which would make sense given the government’s desperate need for more funds.

But SARS may choose to take an alternative approach to the crisis. It may decide to take it on the chin and not participate in Covid-19, taking the fiscal year as a write off. Instead of deploying its resources to try and extract taxes from a limping tax base, it will perhaps use the year of famine as opportunity.

The Commissioner himself has lamented the lack of capacity within SARS, thus this may be a rebuilding phase to lay a new solid foundation for the future.  

In line with SARS’ 2024 Vision, the Commissioner has made it very clear that he wants to reimagine SARS where its work will be informed by data-driven insights, self-learning computers, artificial intelligence and interconnectivity of people and devices.

This might be the ideal opportunity to make this happen. But is this the route to take?

Whilst the second option might be the wiser of the two, it is hard to see how a systems approach will ultimately be the only answer. For every piece of tax law, there exists optimisation strategies; similarly, for each system there will be those all too willing to find ways to find hacks thereto.

The Commissioner should perhaps resist turning its employees into efficient system administrators; rather re-instil the proud SARS auditor skillsets, which some believe have departed from the revenue authority many years ago.

There is nothing like a proper in-depth SARS audit, by a seasoned professional, to unnerve even the most compliant. Confidence in tax positions adopted, almost instantly turned into panic with a couple of carefully aimed SARS audit questions.

Perhaps SARS will roll up their sleeves and get back to the brass tacks of auditing and outsmarting tax dodgers. If SARS uses this opportunity wisely, we may just see a more resilient and assertive revenue authority emerging from the debris of the pandemic.  
​
ENDS
 
MEDIA CONTACT: Rosa-Mari Le Roux, 060 995 6277, rosa-mari@thatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za

ABOUT Tax Consulting SA:
Tax Consulting SA offers a streamlined service in the calculation and filing of individual income tax returns, provisional income tax returns or any other more complex individual tax relate matters. Our highly qualified team of Tax practitioners are registered with SARS under controlling body of the South African Institute of Tax Practitioners (SAIT). As tax specialists, we remove the burden from clients to keep their tax affairs in good order, achieving optimal tax savings while ensuring full compliance.

For more information on Tax Consulting please visit:
Website:  http://www.taxconsulting.co.za/
LinkedIn: Tax Consulting South Africa
Facebook:Tax Consulting South Africa

Immigration and International Mobility firm, Xpatweb, recently launched a survey to measure the impact of Covid-19 on the immigration industry.

Tarissa Wareley, an Immigration Specialist at Xpatweb, says some of the issues the Africa Permit Impact Survey aims to measure how many people are grounded either in or outside an African country that they work in due to the pandemic, which market sectors have been impacted the most, and how the government immigration departments of various African countries are affected by increased or reduced VISA and work permit applications. 

“Many people have found themselves stuck either in an African country or outside the relevant African country they need to be in for work, either with or without current employment and with visas and passports that are about to expire.  The most pressing need is to find out how many international workers are affected across Africa. The intention is to provide this information to the government so that they can prepare for a potential influx of applications once travel restrictions lift,” says Wareley.
​
Preparing for a spike in work permit and visa applications
The survey is being distributed to multi-national companies with operations in Africa who specifically employ overseas workers for both short and long term assignments.

“Once the survey is complete, we could potentially show different countries’ immigration departments what type of spike in work permit and visa applications they can expect. Xpatweb hopes to help these departments find a way to streamline these applications and get people into the countries they need to be in for work as efficiently as possible,” says Wareley.

Wareley says some African countries’ immigration services are still open, with many of them still processing work permits but not visas. The processing time of these applications remains very slow due to Covid 19. However, Wareley’s team anticipate receiving an outcome as soon as the Immigration Authorities resume their activities in full.

“Many countries still offer limited immigration services. Work permits, which are needed before a visa application can be done, can be completed in most countries during the lockdown. With this first step complete, workers’ visa applications can be processed as soon as restrictions lift,” says Wareley.

Companies urged to be proactive about employee worker and visa applications
For many foreign workers, work permit and visa applications are often a rushed administrative task that happens at the last minute.

Wareley says companies will have to be more proactive about applications to avoid bottlenecks that will likely exist at many immigration departments after lockdown. She also added that, she highly recommends for all the paperwork to be prepared whilst waiting for the travel restrictions to be lifted. This will allow us to be amongst the first applicants after lockdown.

“Many African infrastructure projects, such as those in the oil and gas sector, for example, have been put on hold due to Covid-19.   Making sure that companies have the right people to get projects back up and running as soon as possible is a top priority for both the public and private sectors.

A proactive approach will ensure companies who employ internationally and their staff avoid waiting and headaches down the line. Apply for work permits and visas well in advance so that people are allowed to enter the country as quickly as possible,” concludes Wareley.

ENDS
 
MEDIA CONTACT: Rosa-Mari Le Roux, 060 995 6277, rosa-mari@thatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za

ABOUT Xpatweb:
HOLISTIC EXPATRIATE SOLUTIONS
The Xpatweb group has been in existence for over 15 years and includes over 100 professionals, including immigration specialists, mobility practitioners, tax practitioners, attorneys, and chartered accountants. They offer holistic, client-centric, and fully compliant expatriate and work visa solutions. Clients can expect an exceptional end-to-end service that starts with an initial technical meeting to discuss any past challenges, a recommended optimal solution, and the creation of a roadmap and protocol for service delivery. They also offer an on-premises immigration audit service to confirm expatriate employees hold legally obtained, valid visas, and that their duties align with their visa conditions. In addition, their unique online immigration tracking system helps you to easily manage and track expatriate assignees across the globe, is fully customisable and dashboard-driven, and provides a secure repository for storing assignees’ documents.

For more information on Xpatweb please visit:
Website:  http://www.xpatweb.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/work-permit-south-africa/
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/xpatweb/
​

Starting a new job in an employee’s career is usually an exciting event with the additional prospect of increasing their earning potential in most cases. 

With the evolution of payroll systems over the years, it is natural to accept that there should not be any discrepancies between what an employee has been offered and what he receives when they obtain their first payslip.

Differences in net take home pay
Unfortunately, it is not that uncommon for new employees to be faced with a different salary package at the end of their first month than the one they were initially promised as part of the recruitment process.

Tanya Tosen, Master Mobility, Tax and Remuneration Specialist at Remuneration Consultants (Tax Consulting SA), says the general practice during the recruitment process is to present the prospective employee with a “dummy payslip” as an indicator to what the employee can expect in their net  take-home pay.

Ultimately employees are mainly concerned about what will be deposited into their bank accounts after all their deductions which include statutory taxes have been made. It therefore can cause a major break in trust if what has been presented in the dummy pay-slip and the offer letter is not fully aligned in the employee’s first payslip they receive.

In-House Package Structuring Tool not aligned
Tosen says the discrepancies may be attributed to the use of an in-house package structuring tool that has not been configured properly, or the tax treatment of certain benefits which have been calculated incorrectly.

This problem is further exacerbated in an environment where there are flexible benefits structured into the employee’s package whereby an employee wants to see what the impact is on his take-home pay if he selects different benefit options.

“This in effect means that the payroll department will have to run multiple dummy pay-slips to show this impact to the employee’s net take-home pay based on the employee selections made. This can be time-consuming and an additional administrative burden on payroll department,” says Tosen.

In addition, companies should ensure that the pay-slip design is simplistic and easy to understand. The payslip should tie back to the offer letter prospective employees receive to minimise additional queries and create further mistrust. 

Fixed Package Structure
It is also important to note that employees who receive fixed packages i.e. – a fixed basic salary and benefits which remain constant throughout the tax year – should not be faced with fluctuating Pay-as-You-Earn amounts and a different net pay from one month to the next. It is only when the employees earn variable amounts in addition to their fixed packages should there be a fluctuation in net pay and PAYE.

“If this is not the case, it will be necessary to do an analysis of the payroll to find the specific reasons for these discrepancies,” says Tosen.

Bespoke Package Structuring Tool
Remuneration Consultants has developed a bespoke Package Structuring Tool for companies as a solution to the above problems. The tool is customized to the company’s remuneration structure and is configured to mirror exactly what the payroll should reflect when a dummy payslip is issued.

”We update this customized tool for our clients in accordance with any legislative or regulatory changes annually.  This tool also provides an additional layer of comfort in ensuring optimal compliance from a tax perspective is maintained.”
​
The structuring tool also serves as a double check to the payroll system; it is able to provide a dummy payslip to new employees based on selection criteria available in the company’s remuneration structure and it will also reflect the net impact of increases or decreases to a salary package. 

“In addition, it really is an excellent way of alleviating any additional administrative pressures companies may be facing amidst many other concerns raised by the Covid-19 pandemic at the moment where many employees are faced with changes to their current package structure.” 

ENDS

MEDIA CONTACT: Rosa-Mari Le Roux, 060 995 6277, rosa-mari@thatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za

About Remuneration Consultants:
Remuneration Consultants South Africa provides market leading remuneration and employee benefit consulting services.Our competitive advantage is adding a layer of tax optimization to the solutions we deliver. This enables us to optimally structure your Total Rewards System from the ground up to be fully compliant, where tax is planned proactively and not a mere afterthought. Our team consists of full-time tax attorneys, tax professionals, reward specialists, global remuneration professionals (GRP), chartered accountants, professional accountants and psychometrists.
 
For more information on Remuneration Consultants please visit:
Website: www.remunerationconsultants.co.za
LinkedIn: Remuneration Consultants
Facebook: Remuneration Consultants
​

 Author:  Marisa Jacobs, Director and Head of Immigration and Mobility at Xpatweb

A recent survey by Xpatweb shows that 44% of employers are faced with work visas for their expatriate workers that are about to expire or will expire during the Covid-19 lockdown.

The survey gives a sense of how the lockdown is impacting expat workers and new assignees who were due to enter SA. More than 150 JSE-listed and large multinational companies operating across Africa participated in the survey.

According to the survey, 37% of the participants have new assignees that were due to enter the country during the first quarter of 2020.

They are waiting for the lockdown regulations to be lifted in order to enter SA.

These expats will then need to obtain work visas from 34 different SA embassies around the world. Top of the list of countries from where the assignees will be coming from is Germany, Zimbabwe, China, India and Spain.

Embassies that will also be kept busy include Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Serbia, New Zealand and the US.

Interestingly, 84% of the participating companies indicated that they are not affected by revoked visas.  When the Department of Home Affairs issued its first directive – just before the lockdown and the travel ban – it stated that certain visas issued to people from high risk countries would be revoked.

The Department has further clarified that only visas issued to people from China and Iran, and who had not yet activated their visas at the time of the travel ban, would be revoked. Xpatweb has confirmed this position with the Department.

Expats who had an existing visa and went back to their home countries would be able to re-enter SA with their existing visa when travel ban is lifted. They were concerned that their visas would be revoked and that they would have to re-apply.

That is however not the case. These assignees will be able to enter SA again at a later date using their existing visas.

Companies seem to be dealing differently with the start dates of assignments where assignees had not yet entered SA at the time of the travel ban being imposed.

In the case of an intra-company transfer, assignees are in many cases simply remaining in their current role with the foreign entity with a delayed assignment start date to be confirmed until the travel restrictions are lifted.

There is certainly going to be a mismatch between the work visa issue dates and the actual assignment start dates.
In the case of new assignees who have already resigned from a previous position, companies may request that these expats start working from abroad until the borders open again.

According to the survey 9% of expats either resigned their position or declined a position due to the coronavirus outbreak. Employers have indicated that their preferred recruitment destination to have these positions filled is internationally (30%) compared to locally (20%).  

Another 20% said they will look both locally and internationally
It is important to remember that the work visa does not become active on the day it is issued. It only becomes active once the expat travels through a border and it is loaded onto the Department’s track-and-trace system.

We trust that the Department will be quite lenient and understanding because current circumstances are beyond anybody’s control.

Please click here for a copy of the full survey results.
​
ENDS

MEDIA CONTACT: Rosa-Mari Le Roux, 060 995 6277, rosa-mari@thatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za

ABOUT Xpatweb:
HOLISTIC EXPATRIATE SOLUTIONS
The Xpatweb group has been in existence for over 14 years and includes over 90 professionals, including immigration specialists, mobility practitioners, tax practitioners, attorneys, and chartered accountants. They offer holistic, client-centric, and fully compliant expatriate and work visa solutions. Clients can expect an exceptional end-to-end service that starts with an initial technical meeting to discuss any past challenges, a recommended optimal solution, and the creation of a roadmap and protocol for service delivery. They also offer an on-premises immigration audit service to confirm expatriate employees hold legally obtained, valid visas, and that their duties align with their visa conditions. In addition, their unique online immigration tracking system helps you to easily manage and track expatriate assignees across the globe, is fully customisable and dashboard-driven, and provides a secure repository for storing assignees’ documents.
​
For more information on Xpatweb please visit:
Website:  http://www.xpatweb.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/work-permit-south-africa/
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/xpatweb/
​