What You May Not Know About Retirement Annuities

February is the month to review your annuities and tax-free investment plans. Consider some of these lesser-known facts.

- Schalk Louw

In a world that changes daily and with all the technological advancements this brings, you can learn something new every day. February is known as “RA season” – the month during which you pay extra attention to your retirement annuities (RAs), and more recently, also your tax-free investment plans. Many investors believe there is nothing new to learn from these investments, but with a specific focus on RAs, I was quite surprised to learn recently that there are a number of details about this product that investors and people, in general, are not so familiar with. There is a handful of them, but I would like to touch on a few that I regularly encounter.

Tax benefits

The tax benefits attached to an RA are among its most well-known characteristics, and most people by now know contributions are tax-deductible up to a maximum of 27.5% of the greater of an investor’s taxable income or remuneration, subject to a limit of R350 000 per tax year. Fewer people are aware of the tax benefits within an RA. In short, no taxes are payable within your RA. Ever. There is no tax payable on the interest and dividends earned in your RA, and you don’t have to pay capital gains tax on the growth earned on your investment.

Investment options