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Over the past decade, in excess of 4 500 high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) have left South Africa and headed abroad.

We’re not talking about a gap year here or a few years of dabbling in the overseas job market. We’re talking about actual emigration, made official with SARS on the way out in a process that is anything but simple.

A high-net-worth individual is somebody with wealth totalling $1 million, or around R16 million at the current exchange rate. That includes all assets such as properties, cash, and business interests.

Unsurprisingly, according to the latest Henley Global Citizens Report (which includes forecasts by New World Wealth) covered by The Citizen, reasons listed for leaving the country include “safety, rolling blackouts, corruption, and economic stagnation”.

Henley’s data shows that as of this year, the UK and US are not necessarily the first port of call for emigrating millionaires:

 …the UAE now attracts the biggest group of millionaires in 2022.

…notable numbers also emigrated to Portugal, Switzerland, Israel, Mauritius, New Zealand, Canada, and Monaco.

…South African millionaires are also heading to Malta, which has become one of Europe’s great success stories regarding millionaire migration and overall wealth growth.

Many of those countries listed above offer variations of ‘citizenship by investment’ programmes, meaning South Africans with just a green mamba to their name (our passport before you get too confused) can buy their way in.

That’s perhaps the easy part, with efforts to get a Non-Resident Confirmation Letter from SARS proving trickier for some.

You’ll need one of those in order to stop paying tax when permanently leaving South Africa and rejection is common. Often, the correct steps have not been followed during the process of breaking tax residency with SARS.

As with most complicated SARS-related matters, it is “always advisable that you seek professional advice and competent assistance”. Tax experts such as Galbraith | Rushby are well-versed in the ins and outs of things that give most of us sweaty palms and instant headaches.

South Africa is also far from the only country seeing an exodus of HNWIs:

The 10 countries with the highest emigration rates are Russia, China, India, Hong Kong, Ukraine, Brazil, the UK, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia.

Russia saw the biggest emigration of millionaires since the beginning of 2022 after it invaded Ukraine, with forecast emigration of 15 000 HNWIs by the end of the year, an enormous 15% of its HNWI population and 9 500 more than in 2019.

Dr Juerg Steffen, CEO of Henley & Partners, says this reflects “an extremely volatile environment worldwide”.

Go ahead and move if that’s your thing, but you’ll never replace the exhilaration of an EskomSePush notification telling you load shedding has been suspended.

[source:citizen]