The Law of Repatriation of Financial Resources was published on June 26, 2018 in the Diário da República de Angola, which provides for a period of 180 days, from the date of its publication, for the voluntary repatriation of those resources.
In fact, this law consists of a tax exemption and a counter-order (exchange and tax) amnesty, as well as criminal, concerning unlawful facts related to property and related incomes not declared and that were not in Angolan territory as of December 31th of 2017.
The recently published Law applies to natural persons, with Angolan citizenship and residence in Angola, and legal persons domiciled, domiciled, effective management or permanent establishment in Angola, who are holders of these assets and corresponding income held abroad.
In this context, this Law provides two possible repatriation realities:
1- Voluntary: if it is made within one hundred and eighty (180) days from the date of entry into force of this Law; or
2- Coercive: when it is not carried out within that one hundred and eighty (180) days term and is exclusively related to financial resources arising from operations that are proven to be illegal.
With regard to voluntary repatriation, this same route will result in the "extinction of any fiscal and foreign exchange obligations payable in respect of those financial resources", as well as the "exclusion of any liability for possible tax, exchange and criminal offenses as long as they relate to the said resources ".
Alternatively, as from the end of December, repatriation will be carried out in a "coercive" manner, and it will only be applicable "in the case of financial resources exclusively from proven illegal operations".
In practice, this Law is raising a lot of curiosity in the sense that it is not yet known what the actual impact is, the adhesion that it is having, and will take effect once the deadline for voluntary repatriation has expired.