{"id":850555,"date":"2026-02-12T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=850555"},"modified":"2026-02-11T16:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T14:46:08","slug":"sars-freezing-bank-accounts-of-one-group-of-south-africans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/850555\/sars-freezing-bank-accounts-of-one-group-of-south-africans\/","title":{"rendered":"SARS freezing bank accounts of one group of taxpayers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africans who choose to live or work abroad are entangled in complex bureaucratic processes, and one major problem is that their bank accounts are being frozen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These complex problems are being created by the National Treasury, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) and the South African Reserve Bank (SARB).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While frozen bank accounts are only one of the many consequences, it\u2019s becoming a common problem, with many South Africans unable to access funds to live or pay salaries.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the feedback from immigration tax specialist William Louw from Sable International, who told BizNews<\/a> that the core problem is a breakdown in coordination between the three institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of sticking to their mandates, he believes the authorities are trying to overlap into each other\u2019s jurisdiction and causing confusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his view, each institution should \u201cstay in its lane\u201d and focus on making it easier for taxpayers to manage their affairs, whether from an exchange control or tax perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For South Africans emigrating\u2014either permanently or temporarily\u2014the process begins with tax emigration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe first thing you need to look at is, you need to tax immigrate out of South Africa,\u201d Louw explained. This involves informing SARS of the departure date, declaring worldwide assets, paying any applicable exit tax, and obtaining a letter confirming non-residency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once that is done, SARS recognises that it has limited taxing rights\u2014generally confined to South African-sourced income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Louw said SARS itself often struggles to distinguish properly between different bases for ceasing tax residency, such as ordinarily residence, physical presence, or relief under a double taxation agreement (DTA). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey seem to think that all of them are one-off effects, which is not the case,\u201d he said, stressing that each has distinct legal implications. The situation becomes even more complicated when exchange control rules are layered on top.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa’s tax and regulation authorities need to coordinate and implement simpler rules<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

According to Louw, the Reserve Bank has effectively imported tax concepts into exchange control, creating unintended consequences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you\u2019ve tax emigrated out of South Africa, even if you\u2019re a South African ID holder, they will see you as a non-resident for exchange control,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That classification forces individuals to convert their local bank accounts into non-resident accounts, often resulting in restrictions on allowances and transactions. In some cases, bank accounts are frozen outright.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is a growing number of situations where the bank has now classified people as non-residents, frozen their bank accounts, and cannot access their money,\u201d Louw said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He noted that the only way to resolve this is often to obtain formal confirmation from SARS, which his a process that can take six months after they\u2019ve left the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 In the interim, affected individuals may have to return to South Africa in person to persuade their bank to unlock the account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re having a lot of cases like that,\u201d he added, including business owners living abroad whose South African accounts have been frozen, leaving them unable to pay staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Louw argued that the tightening of exchange controls is backfiring. \u201cIf it were my decision, I\u2019d probably just rip everything out of South Africa because I don\u2019t want to deal with all the red tape,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than preventing capital flight, the current system is accelerating it by frustrating South Africans who had intended to keep assets, businesses and investments in the country while working abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He warned that the broader economic consequences could be severe. Many South Africans working overseas intend to return and, in the meantime, continue building assets at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, if maintaining bank accounts and moving legitimate income becomes too difficult, the investment may simply remain offshore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou need to create the right environment for people to want to invest in. Why would you want to invest where you\u2019re not comfortable?\u201d he questioned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He urged all relevant institutions to address the issues and to consider better coordination and simpler rules.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If SARS, the Reserve Bank and tax practitioners worked together to streamline processes, he believes compliance would improve, tax collection would be easier, and confidence in South Africa as an investment destination would strengthen. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africans who choose to live or work abroad are being entangled by complex bureaucratic processes, and one of the major problems is that their bank accounts are being frozen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":850559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[12372,853,10183,21912,21727],"class_list":["post-850555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-sable-international","tag-south-africa","tag-the-national-treasury","tag-the-south-african-reserve-bank-sarb","tag-the-south-african-revenue-service-sars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850555","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\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850555"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":850663,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850555\/revisions\/850663"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}