Visa options<\/strong><\/p>\nGeorge Ganey, a founding partner at Ganey Law Group, said that the most common residency via investment route is the EB-5 Immigrant Investment Program visa.<\/p>\n
The EB-5 requires investment in an enterprise that creates jobs for US citizens. It costs $900,000 for specially designated areas and $1.8 million for non-designated areas.<\/p>\n
The investor and their family are given conditional permanent residence and can be given a green (a permanent residence) card after two years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe EB-5 visa is certainly the most effective for South Africans, as recent legal reforms offer greater protection to investors, more clarity around timelines, and other assurances,\u201d Ganey said.<\/p>\n
Employees of existing or new branches of multinational companies can also enter the US via the the L-1A or New Office L-1A visas. Both visas can eventually lead to permanent residence status.<\/p>\n
Ganey added that the once viable E-2 visa is no longer an option for South Africans due to changes in the law.<\/p>\n
Relocation plan<\/strong><\/p>\nOne also has to carefully plan how they will process the relocation of their family, wealth and business to the US.<\/p>\n
Sheldon Halcrow, President of Caleo Capital USA, said that it starts with a needs analysis.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany people have their hearts set on the US without considering it\u2019s a country of 50 independently governed states, each with its own unique economy and culture,\u201d Halcrow said.<\/p>\n
Although employees go to where they are sent, the independently wealthy should look for the state that holds the best business and investment opportunities – including tax benefits. This is on top of the lifestyle that they want for their family.<\/p>\n
Moreover, a global asset inventory can highly areas of concern, deal with regulatory issues, and create a wealth migration roadmap.<\/p>\n
Finally, those looking to immigrate should sequence the journey carefully as the transition can happen over phases in the long term – synchronising each step is crucial.<\/p>\n
\u201cA sequencing document, along with regular reviews, ensures that when they land, much of the groundwork has already been done, like opening a bank account, having a US cell phone, or obtaining a means of ID,\u201d says Halcrow.<\/p>\n
Tax Emigration<\/strong><\/p>\nExiting South Africa is a crucial step for gaining entry to the US, particularly from a tax perspective.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need to develop a detailed roadmap that clearly defines where you are coming from and where you want to go and contains a definite plan on how to get there,\u201d Thomas Lobban at Tax Consulting South Africa said.<\/p>\n
Although many South Africans are eager to leave the country, some are unaware that their tax obligations in South Africa do not disappear when they leave the nation’s borders.<\/p>\n
In the US, these emigrants must pay taxes under South Africa\u2019s residency-based tax system.<\/p>\n
They will need to formally cease tax residency by notifying SARS and providing it with evidence that they will reside in another country.<\/p>\n
Failing this, they can rely on the double tax agreement (DTA) to protect their foreign wealth from being taxed twice. The DTA will require a formal application during each year’s tax return.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuch concerns need to be addressed in the planning phase because, after landing on US soil, it may be too late to revise your tax strategy,\u201d Lobban said.<\/p>\n
\nRead: <\/strong>Not even your bank account is safe from SARS<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tax Consulting South Africa looks at three main areas of concern for wealthy South Africans looking to emigrate to the US. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":672439,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26,17897],"class_list":["post-672315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-opinion","tag-headline","tag-tax-consultancy-sa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672315"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":673721,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672315\/revisions\/673721"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}