Taxation

[clantry]

Hi, My husband has been offered a contract in jburg to start on the 1st of september. It does not state anything abot the tax rate there. Although it does mention that you have to have an accountant to deal with all of these matters once you start employment. As thay have not offered any information about the tax rate, I was wondering if anyone could tell me what it is, as they are waiting for a signed agreement back from us. We are hesitant to sign at this stage as Like I said before, we still are unaware of what the outgoings will be (tax) Any information would be appreciated. Thanks. Cheryl. :-)

[synthia]

I don't know what the rate is, and I don't know where you are from, but if you are American you will get a kick out of the complaints about the complexity of their taxes.

[clantry]

Hi Synthia, With all due respect, I am not sure why, where we are from, has anything at all to do with the question of how much the tax rate is in South Africa????? But just incase, we are from Australia.

[synthia]

Not the rate, but they complained so much about how complicated it was, and to an American, the forms and the rules were so simple it was funny. Someone told me, "The tax forms are four pages long!" We get inch-thick packets in the mail, and they aren't even complete. You can need even more forms. So if you aren't American with our convolted tax laws, you might not really appreciate the simplicity of it all.

[clantry]

Thanks Synthia, Sorry about that, I was a bit slow off the mark. Now I know what you are talking about. The taxation here in oz is fairly simple, the more you earn the more you pay................that is all there is to it. And at the end of it all, you get a huge stinking bill (no return). This is exactly why we have chosen to be expats for nine years in the past, because we here in oz have, as I believe...............the highest tax rate in the world. And you don't mess around with the ATO......................Thanks again, Cheryl.

[synthia]

You don't mess around with the IRS either.

I thought Finland had the highest tax rate. A Finnish person with a sort of average job, like a schoolteacher, pays over 50% in taxes. That's not the marginal rate on the last few dollars. It means if you make 10,000, you get less than 5000.

I once had a professional tax preparer refuse to do my taxes when he learned I'd worked overseas and had to file the exemption form.

[gkloken]

I beg to differ on Taxation, in comparison to the complicated USA tax forms South Africa's are a piece of cake .
Everything is set out with specified deductions
(4 pages) so you can complete it yourself. You can also bundle all your receipts and take it to a bookkeeper that will do it all for a small fee.
In the USA you are totally responsible for being in charge and knowledgeable about your taxes and returns.
South Africa's Tax laws/forms and the Australian one's are very similar.

[synthia]

That was my point. The South Africans complained and *****ed about them, and I had to laugh because they were so straightforward and easy, especially compared to American tax forms. But for months before tax time all I heard was how awful they were and how much trouble I was going to have and I'd better get an accountant. It was funny, really.

Of course they also wanted to know how I, as a recently divorced young woman of 37, had managed to get my father's permission to move there!

[gkloken]

I know, but a lot of concepts have changed even in the country towns. They think more globally because so many have family members living overseas now.
I never realized how easy South Africans really had it in until I moved to the USA.
In so many ways we were really pampered. Just compare the fully paid yearly leave , the long maternity leave that is paid for.
Shorter work week and most important the weekends that starts on Friday noon already...!

[synthia]

Not to mention maids and gardeners and six weeks leave every year. And people who thought working past normal quitting time just to get something done and out of the way was extremely weird.

I even got to like the store hours. There was something relaxing about knowing that after 5:30 during the week, after 1:00 on Saturday, and all day Sunday, you couldn't go shopping or run errands.