Foreign Currency
Whenever you leave your native country, you need foreign currency!
That’s a given – so in South Africa as tax paying citizen you understand and know that you can’t take any more than what the South African Receiver Of Revenue (SARS) has deemed is acceptable ;-(
This amount is called the “Travel Allowance“.
Well, I figured that applied to every year that one is out of the country – WRONG!!!!
I filled in all the paperwork to do a bank transfer - surprisingly cheaper than using a travel agent! I did the paperwork on the Tuesday knowing well that it would take a couple days before the funds appeared in my Australian bank account.
So that Sunday after the flight back to Brisbane, Australia – I checked my ANZ bank account.
Nothing – no funds had been transfered!!!
The moment you go on a “working holiday“, the “yearly” part of the travel allowance falls away. This the useless crowd at First National Bank (FNB) didn’t bother to tell me on the Tuesday I filled in all the paperwork.
Hell, they couldn’t even make a decent photocopy of the plane ticket. Another derailment is that the plane ticket must have been purchased in South Africa!
The travel allowance falls away the moment you earn an income outside South Africa!
Hello, the Rand doesn’t go very far. Are you expected to take a year, two or three’s worth of currency with you the moment you leave? Is anyone that liquid? Hell no!
I wonder if any of the politicians who dreamt up this legal mumbo jumbo actually used their own money overseas? Oh I forgot – they let tax payers pay for their trip!
