Working for foreign companies as a South African, Part 3: Tips & Tricks
Welcome to part 3 of my financial & tax guide to working for foreign companies as a South African resident.
Disclaimer: I am not a financial adviser, lawyer, or qualified professional around these matters. Take this information as a launching point to do your own research and consult with professionals.
In part 1, I outlined the three main ways to get paid.
In part 2, I dove into how working for a foreign company here affects your employment and tax status.
While that covers most of the information, there are still some nuances worth mentioning, as well as condensing all the information of the guide.
Putting it all together - The last 3 posts in 3 lines
What's the catch? What's the secret? What to be aware of?
If you come prepared, it all works out fine.
On funding your Wise account
Be aware currently that Investec blocks sending money out to Wise (and likely other similar providers). They give some half-baked excuses of crypto or forex services not being allowed, but it seems obviously to force the use of their SWIFT to me. Just EFT the money to another bank (eg BankZero) and send it to Wise from there.
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Send your money as Rands from Wise, don't let your bank do the conversion!
This way, because you're just getting a plain old EFT, this also means you can potentially receive international transfers to banks that don't support international transfer, like BankZero and Tyme Bank. Anecdotally, I've done this and have heard from others who have done it for both of these banks. I haven't done this in a little while, but it should still work.
Be careful if your company has a local office that you're not employed by
If they do have a local company and are recommending you work for the foreign one, that may potentially be a breach of labour law on their part.
Do I REALLY have to invoice the company?
There are some nuances here around when to or not to invoice in ZAR, but they shouldn't affect you until you're earning enough that you actually need to incorporate. If you are earning that much, you should speak to an accountant instead of reading this post!
Earning over R1m this way? Be aware of your obligations
Be warned that if you're earning more than R1m a year as a contractor, you'll need to register for VAT. This can be done as an individual, but is easier if done as a company. That then means you'll need to incorporate, which is an entire other post worth of content!
You've made it to the end of this rabbit hole, for now.
I hope this information is helpful in your remote job pursuits!
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Owner at Praxis BIS (Pty) Ltd & Solutions Architect with WPP
8 个月Great Series Nick - thanks for sharing. Good to note the bit around sending money to Wise should the need arise.
Open Source Developer | Speaker | Head of Engineering at Slaz
8 个月Have you checked out Deel or Remote.com makes dealing with international contracts easy. Deel recently started paying from a South African bank account for dollar based contract reducing the need to handle any of the international transactions and SARS declarations