Prior to the introduction of the two-pot system on 1 September 2024, a retirement annuity fund (RA) was the most restrictive type of fund: access before age 55 was limited to medical disability, cessation of South African tax residency, and visa expiry. Even after two-pot, an RA remains more restrictive than a pension or provident fund, as RA members cannot access their vested component on resignation. Consequently, an RA member could only transfer to another RA.
Post-retirement transfers — where a member who has reached normal retirement age defers taking their benefit — have been progressively enabled since 2018. Previous legislation allowed transfers from pension or provident funds to an RA (from 1 March 2018), from pension or provident funds to preservation funds (from 1 March 2019), from preservation funds to another preservation fund or RA (from 1 March 2022), and involuntary transfers between pension or provident funds (from 1 March 2024). However, post-retirement transfers between RAs were not yet permitted.
The definition of "retirement annuity fund" in section 1(1) and paragraphs 2(1) and 6A of the Second Schedule to the Income Tax Act have been amended to allow a member of an RA to transfer their post-retirement benefit — that is, after reaching age 55 — to another RA without incurring a tax liability, whether the transfer is voluntary or involuntary.
Effective: 1 March 2025A member of a retirement annuity fund whose interest in the fund is less than the prescribed de minimis amount (currently R15,000, increased from R7,000 with effect from 1 March 2021) may take their fund benefit as a pre-retirement withdrawal benefit, taxed on the retirement fund lump sum withdrawal tax table. Before the two-pot system, this threshold applied to the member's total fund value across all policies in the fund. The introduction of the savings component created uncertainty about whether the savings component value should be included in the de minimis calculation.
The definition of "retirement annuity fund" in section 1(1) of the Income Tax Act has been amended to clarify that the de minimis rule applies to the member's interest in their vested component and retirement component only. The savings component is excluded from the calculation. A member who has not yet taken a savings withdrawal benefit in the relevant tax year may first take the full savings component as a savings withdrawal benefit (taxed at the member's marginal rate), and if the combined value of their vested and retirement components is then below the prescribed threshold, may take those as a pre-retirement lump sum (taxed on the withdrawal tax table). If the member has already taken a savings withdrawal benefit in that tax year and a balance remains in the savings component, that balance is excluded from the de minimis calculation and can only be withdrawn in the following tax year, provided it is at least R2,000 as required by the definition of "savings withdrawal benefit".
Effective: 1 March 2025The Pension Funds Amendment Act No. 31 of 2024 (effective 1 September 2024) introduced the deduction of interim maintenance order amounts from a member's individual account or minimum individual reserve, in addition to existing maintenance order deductions. It also confirmed that deductions must be done in accordance with fund rules or as determined by the Income Tax Act, which provides for pro rata deductions across all three two-pot components.
Section 7(11) of the Income Tax Act has been amended to include an interim maintenance order payment as a deemed income accruing to the member. As with a maintenance order, an interim maintenance order payment is taxed in the member's hands, and the tax-on-tax principle applies. The tax to be deducted from the member's individual account or minimum individual reserve must be determined using the formula prescribed in SARS Interpretation Note 89 (IN89), issued 1 March 2016.
Effective: Deemed to have come into operation on 1 September 2024When a person ceases to be a South African tax resident, they are deemed to have disposed of their assets at market value on the date immediately before cessation of residency, triggering capital gains tax (CGT). The definition of "asset" for CGT purposes includes unit trusts and shares but excludes immovable property (taxed on actual sale) and certain other items. Including a member's interest in a retirement fund in this deemed disposal would result in double taxation: once on cessation of residency (CGT on deemed disposal) and again on termination of membership (lump sum tax tables). Any annuity income from the fund would remain taxable in South Africa under section 9(2)(i) of the Income Tax Act.
Section 9H(4) of the Income Tax Act has been amended by the insertion of a new paragraph (g), which excludes the value of a member's interest in a South African retirement fund from the deemed disposal provision for CGT purposes when the member ceases to be a South African tax resident.
Effective: 1 March 2025Paragraph 12D of the Seventh Schedule to the Income Tax Act governs the manner in which contributions by employers to defined benefit pension and provident funds (occupational funds) must be valued. The TLAA 2024 made technical corrections to this paragraph by deleting references to "retirement annuity fund" wherever they appeared, and by clarifying that when members transfer between occupational funds, no additional tax consequences arise at the time of transfer in relation to amounts already contributed to the transferring fund.