Tax considerations

Current regulations require you to use a minimum of two thirds of your retirement fund income to purchase a life annuity or a living annuity, or a combination of both. It's a big choice for retirement! Which one should you choose? 

Soon-to-be-retirees have many options to consider to ensure their retirement and discretionary savings work best for them in retirement. If you have diligently saved for retirement, you don’t pay income tax on contributions paid into a retirement fund or retirement annuity, nor on the investment build up within these retirement vehicles. But when you retire and start taking the money out, it will be taxed as income.

The next DAILY MAVERICK op-ed by Bruce Cameron says by adding five years to your working life, you can improve your retirement savings by about 20-30% and reduce the time you will spend living off your savings. Just CEO Deane Moore provides an example of how delaying retirement can help you.

Only 6% of South Africans will be able to retire comfortably, according to National Treasury. Further to this, the Just Retirement Insights survey conducted by Just SA estimates that there is a 22% shortfall between expectations and actual retirement provisions based on current annuity rates.

Consider tax when choosing an income vehicle in retirement. Compared to unit trusts for example, a tax-efficient annuity can help to provide you with the highest possible income.

The 2018 budget will place increased pressure on retirees’ disposable income because of income tax bracket creep. Simply put, inflationary annuity income increases may have pushed some middle to high income earners into a higher tax bracket.