Matthew Lester looks at ways to cut retirement income requirements so that less tax is payable to SARS.
In times gone by the universal approach adopted when retiring or withdrawing from a retirement fund (pension, provident or retirement annuity fund) was ‘take one-third of the capital in cash and the rest as an annuity. When dealing with provident funds, cash in everything.’ Some were even fortunate enough to be able to withdraw their entire accumulated actuarial value from their pension funds. It was all too good to last.
Times have changed. One needs to take into account the cumulative effect of tax reform over the past 20 years. Read on….