Moving to Dubai from South Africa: the 330 days, the intention test SARS calls undefined, and the charge on the way out

For a South African, the Dubai question divides cleanly in two, and only one half is about Dubai.

The Emirati half does not vary by passport: a work permit issued by a federal ministry under a federal law, or one of the self-sponsored routes, and no personal income tax. That half is proved at length elsewhere on this site and is summarised at the end of this page.

The South African half is where a decision costs or saves money, and it is governed entirely by South African law. There are three ways to stop being a South African tax resident, there is a charge when you do, and there is a treaty that decides whether the third way is available — which for the Emirates, unusually, it is.

The short answer. Three doors out: ceasing to be ordinarily resident, which turns on intention supported by objective factors; 330 continuous full days physically outside South Africa under the physical presence test; or becoming a resident of another country under a double tax agreement. The toll: a deemed disposal for capital gains tax at the moment residence breaks, covering worldwide assets but excluding immovable property in South Africa. And the treaty door is open here, because the South Africa-UAE agreement defines a UAE resident by reference to Emirati domestic law rather than by nationality.

Door one: ceasing to be ordinarily resident, on a test SARS says is not clearly defined

This is the route most people are sold, and it is the one with the least certainty in it — on the revenue authority's own account.

The South African Revenue Service's page on ceasing to be a tax resident, last updated 27 June 2025, puts the question as whether your "subjective intention to cease to be ordinarily resident in South Africa" is supported by objective factors, with status ending from the day residence ceased.

And SARS says of its own test that "the concept of 'ordinarily residence' is not clearly defined". It is applied case by case on the factors listed in the authority's Interpretation Note 3. Those factors, as the page gives them:

• the type of visa you hold
• permanent residence abroad
• a foreign tax residence certificate
• retained South African property
• business interests
• where the family is
• social ties and belongings
• return visits

Read that list as what it is: a set of things an official will weigh, not a threshold you can clear. Anyone offering you certainty on this door is offering something SARS does not claim for it. We did not read Interpretation Note 3, so this page gives the factors as the page lists them and does not state how they are weighted.

Door two: 330 continuous full days outside South Africa

The physical presence test is the one with a number attached, and the number is the thing to plan around.

Residence ends after being physically outside South Africa for a continuous period of at least 330 full days, effective from the day you left.

Two words in that sentence do the work. Continuous — this is not 330 days counted up across a couple of years; it is an unbroken period. And full — partial days are not what is being counted. A trip home in month ten restarts the clock, which is the single most expensive mistake available on this route.

Note also what the SARS page does not give: no day threshold for becoming resident by physical presence. It refers that detail to Interpretation Note 4, which we did not read, so this page states no acquisition threshold.

Door three: the treaty, and here it is open

The third route is to become a resident of another country under a double tax agreement: a person deemed exclusively resident elsewhere under a DTA is not a South African resident.

That route depends entirely on what the particular treaty says, and the answer differs by destination in ways nobody can guess. For the Emirates it is open. The South Africa-UAE agreement, done at Pretoria on 23 November 2015 and in force from 23 November 2016 under Government Notice No. 618 of 15 December 2016, defines a resident of the UAE for an individual in article 4(1)(b)(i) as one who "under the laws of the United Arab Emirates is considered a resident thereof" by reason of domicile, residence or place of management.

No Emirati nationality is required and no day count is imposed. Nationality appears only in the article 4(2) tie-breaker, and the agreement's 183-day test belongs to other articles such as permanent establishment and employment income rather than to the residence definition.

So the South African's treaty door turns on whether Emirati domestic law treats him as resident — which is exactly what the Federal Tax Authority's tax residency certificate speaks to. For this basis SARS asks for a foreign tax residence certificate from the foreign revenue authority, and here that certificate has something to operate on.

How unusual that is, in one line. A Canadian in the same city cannot use his treaty at all, because the Canada-UAE convention of 2002 requires the individual to be an Emirati national. The four instruments we have read define "resident of the UAE" four different ways, and the comparison is set out in moving to Dubai from Canada or India. The lesson for a South African is not that treaties are generous; it is that his happens to be, and that naming the treaty matters more than naming the country.

The exit charge falls on the portfolio, not on the house

This is where expectations are usually inverted.

SARS states that "a deemed disposal for capital gains tax purposes takes place at the time when an individual breaks his or her tax residence", and that it covers worldwide assets, excluding immovable property in South Africa. After ceasing, you are taxed in South Africa only on South African-sourced income.

So:

Someone who sold the shares to fund the move and kept the Cape Town house has arranged his affairs in the direction the charge points. Someone who sold the house and kept the portfolio has done the reverse. That is not advice — it is the shape of the rule, and it is worth knowing before the order of transactions is fixed.

What this page does not state: the rate, the amount, or the section. SARS's page describes the charge without naming the provision of the Income Tax Act that imposes it, and we did not read the Act for it. So no section number appears here, and anyone quoting you one should be asked where they read it.

Telling SARS, and the deadline that does not appear

The procedure, from the same page:

1. Update the date on the RAV01 form through eFiling, under Income Tax Liability Details. The date you enter becomes your non-resident start date.
2. Submit the declaration form with supporting documents, through eFiling or SOQS.
3. SARS may then open a case and write asking for documents, and may decline where the criteria are not met or the materials supplied are wrong.

No deadline is stated anywhere on the page. That is worth knowing, because the market around South African tax emigration is sold on urgency, and the urgency is not in the published procedure.

The documents, by basis. Every declaration needs a signed declaration, a detailed letter of motivation, and a copy of the passport or travel diary showing all relevant entry and exit stamps. The ordinary-residence basis adds visa details, proof of permanent residence abroad, a foreign tax residence certificate if available, and details of South African property, business interests, family, social interests and return visits. The physical presence basis needs the standard documents only. The DTA basis needs a foreign tax residence certificate from the foreign revenue authority.

One provenance note, recorded rather than left out. The declaration form as SARS publishes it carries no version number and no issue date — those fields are blank. It asks for your name, identity number, passport number, taxpayer reference number, a South African physical address, country of residence, which of the three bases applies, the date residence ceased, and a representative's details with a power of attorney where one acts. Beyond that power of attorney it names no documents to attach, and it requires supporting records to be retained for inspection.

Coming back. Reinstatement is by updating the RAV01 through eFiling while you are in South Africa, with no documents required.

What the treaty does to a South African pension

Not what the Emirati marketing implies.

Article 17(1) of the South Africa-UAE agreement allows pensions, other similar remuneration and annuities arising in one state and paid to a resident of the other to be taxed in the state in which they arise. Article 17(2) makes social security pensions taxable only in the state making them.

So South Africa does not simply release a pension because you have left. Compare the India-UAE agreement, whose article 19(1) allocates non-government pensions to the state of residence alone — a different pattern in an instrument with the same destination. Treaties are not a category; they are individual documents.

The Emirati half, which does not change with your passport

Short, because none of it is South-Africa-specific.

The work permit is issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation under a federal law, so the contract rules, the six-month probation and its one-year penalty for leaving the wrong way, the notice period of 30 to 90 days and the end-of-service gratuity of 21 then 30 days' wage are the same whoever hires you: moving to Dubai. The self-sponsored routes — the golden visa at AED 2,000,000 on the property route, retirement, and the virtual work permit at US$3,500 a month — are in the UAE golden visa, the retirement visa and the remote work visa. The certificate that proves UAE tax residence, and which of its two kinds you need, is in the UAE tax residency certificate — and for a South African using the treaty door that document is the centre of the file rather than an afterthought.

If the destination is Abu Dhabi rather than Dubai, the emirate-level conditions differ and the widely quoted figures are Dubai's: relocation to Abu Dhabi. What a month costs, from the Dubai Land Department's lease register: the cost of living in Dubai.

The order to do this in

1. Pick the door before the date. Ordinary residence, 330 continuous days, or the treaty — they need different evidence and they produce different paperwork.
2. If it is the 330 days, protect the continuity. One trip home in month ten and the clock restarts.
3. If it is the treaty, get the FTA certificate right. It is the document the whole basis rests on, and there are two kinds.
4. Settle the order of your asset transactions before you break residence, because the charge reaches the portfolio and not the South African property.
5. Do not plan around a deadline nobody published. Confirm timing with SARS rather than with a provider whose fee depends on urgency.

Frequently asked questions

Where each part of this is proved

The three bases on which residence ceases, the 330-day period, the factors for ordinary residence, the deemed disposal and its exclusion of South African immovable property, the declaration procedure and the documents by basis come from the South African Revenue Service's page on ceasing to be an SA tax resident and reinstatement, last updated 27 June 2025, together with the SARS declaration form. Article 4(1)(b)(i), the article 4(2) tie-breaker and article 17 on pensions come from the South Africa-UAE agreement done at Pretoria on 23 November 2015, in force 23 November 2016, published by SARS under Government Notice No. 618 of 15 December 2016. Both are on the sources page with the dates we read them. The four-way comparison of how different treaties define a resident of the UAE, and the Canadian and Indian departure tests, are in moving to Dubai from Canada or India. The Emirati side: moving to Dubai, the golden visa, the retirement visa, the remote work visa, the tax residency certificate, relocation to Abu Dhabi, the cost of living in Dubai.