20 February 2020 South Sudan confirms pension income paid upon retirement is subject to taxation South Sudan's National Revenue Authority (NRA) has issued a circular to suspend circular SSD/NRA/J/CG-5/19/11 issued by the former Commissioner General in May 2019. The new circular is intended to confirm that pension income earned upon retirement or termination of employment is subject to taxation. Taxation of pension payments has been in contention for a long time in South Sudan. This announcement sets the record straight, once again, regarding the taxation of pension income. In the new circular SS/NRA/J/CG -16/1/2020, issued in January 2020, the Acting Commissioner General confirmed that pension income contributions paid after the retirement period or termination of employment is deemed taxable income in accordance with Section 58(1)(d) of the Taxation Act.
The regulations provide that lump-sum pension income earned at the end of services should be subject to tax based on a 10% or 15% tax rate and the percentage of total years worked during which the income was taxed at 10% and the percentage of years during which such income was tax at 15% should be considered to avoid over taxation. With implementation of new tax rates on 1 January 2020 in accordance with Finance Act 2019/2020, it is expected that this regulation will be updated to accommodate these new tax rates. Employers are now expected to subject pension income payments to personal income tax withholding at the point when the employee exits employment and NOT when they are still in service.
Document ID: 2020-0410 |
