Make Smart Money Moves this Tax Season

Yes, but be sure to keep your total annual contributions across your accounts within the R46 000 limit per tax year (and the R500 000 lifetime limit).

Currently, it’s R46 000 per person per annum, with a lifetime limit of R500 000.

No, just meet the minimum monthly tax-free contribution stipulated by the provider.

No, but be prepared for any minimum monthly payments set by the provider. For Sygnia, it’s R500 per month via debit order.

Just a valid South African ID (or passport if you’re a foreign national), proof of residence and banking details (both less than three months old), and, if applicable, your income tax number. Also, be ready to fill out our application forms and invest at least R500 per month.

We don’t charge any fees to open an account. However, there are various fees associated with administering the tax-free savings account. Those are disclosed when you open the account as part of your application process.

Sorry, TFSAs can only be opened in the name of one individual.

If you choose not to invest the full R46,000 annual limit, it’s important to remember that any unused portion of the limit cannot be rolled over to the next year. For instance, let’s say you only invest R25,000 during the year, leaving R21,000 unused. Unfortunately, that remaining R21,000 cannot be carried forward, and it will be forfeited. So, it’s crucial to utilize your full annual limit to maximize its benefits.

All South African residents are eligible to open a TFSA, including parents/guardians for their children.

Regulation 28 refers to a section of the South African Pension Funds Act that governs how retirement funds can invest. Its goal is to protect members’ savings by limiting excessive risk and ensuring diversification.

Your underlying investments can have a maximum exposure of 75% in equities, 45% in foreign assets and 25% in property. Our Skeleton Balanced range is Regulation 28 compliant.

Yes, you can hold multiple RAs, but the tax benefit is calculated across all your RA contributions combined – not per individual RA. When you retire, you can only claim the tax-free lump sum portion once, regardless of how many RAs you have.

You can deduct contributions to your RA from your taxable income: 27.5% of the higher amount of your taxable income and remuneration, capped at R350 000.
Please see the below example as an illustration of the tax benefit:

Scenario:

Annual taxable income: R1 000 000

Annual contribution to RA: R300 000

You can deduct up to 27.5% of your taxable income for RA contributions:

27.5% of R1 000 000 = R275 000

So only R275 000 of your R300 000 contribution is deductible in the current tax year.

Note that in this example, contributing R300 000 to your RA will reduce your taxable income by R275 000 for that tax year.

You can make one withdrawal from your savings component per tax year (provided it has a minimum balance of R2 000).
Withdrawals from the savings component are taxed at your marginal tax rate and incur a transaction fee of 2% (excl. VAT), with a minimum of R100 and a maximum of R600 (excl. VAT).

You can access your RA savings if you officially emigrated from South Africa (i.e. your emigration application was approved by the South African Reserve Bank) before 28 February 2022.

You can also access your RA if you haven’t been a South African tax resident for a continuous three-year period starting from 1 March 2021 or later.

The trustees of the retirement fund will refer to legislation to decide who should receive the money.

The trustees will consider:

• Your financial dependants (your spouse, children, or anyone else who relied on you financially).
• Any beneficiaries nominated in your RA.
• If no dependants or nominees are found, the money will go to your estate.

A portion of the payout (up to R500 000) may be tax-free, depending on your previous withdrawals. The balance will be taxed according to the retirement tax table.

You cannot open a joint Sygnia Stargazer Tax-Free Savings Account, but it’s easy to open two accounts at the same time, so don’t let that stop you – and we are here to help with the details.

No. Once a Sygnia Stargazer, always a Sygnia Stargazer. The account can be kept for the rest of your child’s life.

Short answer – no. We have designed the Sygnia Stargazer Tax-Free Savings Account to be the most effective and efficient one-stop solution to a parent’s needs. To deliver results in today’s volatile market at the lowest fees possible, we don’t currently offer customisation.

Great question! The account is structured as a Tax-Free Savings Account so the first R36 000 deposited in any one year and/or the first R500 000 over the lifetime of the account will automatically be deposited in this account.

Any parent or legal guardian can open a Sygnia Stargazer Tax-Free Savings Account for a minor with a valid South African form of identification with an identity number, e.g. a birth certificate. The account will be in the child’s name, but the parent (or any other benefactor) is the “payer”. Any money withdrawn from the child’s Sygnia Stargazer Tax-Free Savings Account will be paid into the bank account of the contracting party – in other words, into the child’s bank account.