How the 2026 Single Discretionary Allowance Increase Family Move Budgets
25 February 2026: the Budget speech includes a line easy to miss if you’re not specifically listening for it. 3 March 2026: the South African Reserve Bank issues Circular 3/2026, translating that Budget line into an actual exchange control change. 8 April 2026: final circulars confirm it. Somewhere in that six-week window sits the 2026 single discretionary allowance increase family budgets now have to plan around — the single discretionary allowance doubled to R2 million per adult per calendar year, and for a family moving money out ahead of an emigration, that timeline is the difference between planning around an old number and planning around the real one.
What actually changed, cost by cost
This 2026 single discretionary allowance increase family budgets need to absorb isn’t a single number — it’s a set of related limits that moved together, and a family’s move budget touches several of them at once:
| Item | Before 2026 | From 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Single discretionary allowance (per adult, 18+) | R1 million/year | R2 million/year |
| Travel allowance, under-18s | R200,000/year | R400,000/year |
| Household/personal effects (ceasing residency) | R1 million per family | R2 million per family |
| Once-off travel allowance in year of ceasing residency | R1 million | R2 million |
| SA banknotes carried out | R25,000 | R100,000 |
What this means for a family’s actual moving budget
A two-adult household moving in the same calendar year can now access R4 million between them through the SDA alone, before touching the separate R10 million-per-adult foreign investment allowance that sits above it and is unchanged. Add two children under 18, each carrying their own R400,000 travel allowance, and the new SDA limit for South African families emigrating adds up to considerably more than it did under the old R1 million-per-adult ceiling, without needing SARB’s more stringent case-by-case approval that kicks in above these thresholds.
What didn’t change, and matters just as much
The SDA still doesn’t require a SARS Tax Compliance Status PIN or documentary evidence to use, unlike the R10 million foreign investment allowance sitting above it, which does. National Treasury’s own stated reason for the increase, accounting for inflation and currency fluctuation since the R1 million figure was last set, comes with an explicit note that the limit “will be reviewed regularly” — a polite way of saying don’t treat R2 million as permanent either.
The honest caveat
The exact effective date of the final circulars is reported as 8 April 2026 by secondary sources rather than stated plainly on the circular itself, and SARB material describes the increase as effective “from the date of this Circular” without spelling out precisely when transfers under the new limit could actually begin. For a family sequencing a real transfer against a real departure date, that’s a detail worth confirming directly with an authorised dealer or forex specialist rather than assuming the headline figure applies from Budget day itself.
Where this fits in a bigger plan
What the 2026 SARB allowance increase means for a move is a higher ceiling on how much a family can move and when — it doesn’t change whether the underlying tax residency and compliance steps still apply, because those haven’t moved at all. A family’s exchange control plan and paperwork are still questions for a registered tax practitioner or forex specialist to confirm against your specific numbers.
Cape2Canada’s guide to South Africa’s exchange control allowances covers how the SDA and FIA interact for a full household, useful background before that conversation with a specialist.