Can an independent contractor from Zimbabwe have a bank account in South Africa to receive income from a South African company?

Question

In a case where a South African company has contracted independent contractors from for example Zimbabwe or other foreign countries, is it legal for the independent contractor to be paid into a South African bank account (whether the bank account is a foreign account or a local account)? If the foreigner was at some point in South Africa legally and at that time, they opened a bank account in South Africa but after some time, they returned to their own country but never closed the South African bank account and they started to work remotely for the South African company, is it legal for the independent contractor to be paid into a South African bank account? What about tax liabilities? Is it perhaps a way for the independent contractor to avoid paying tax in their own country and can the South African company be held responsible for that?

Would a better option not be to pay the independent contractor into their local account in their own country?

Answer 1

is it legal for the independent contractor to be paid into a South African bank account?

Yes.

What about tax liabilities?

Tax liabilities have nothing to do with the location of the bank into which you are paid.

Is it perhaps a way for the independent contractor to avoid paying tax in their own country and can the South African company be held responsible for that?

Only if the independent contractor is committed (1) to engaging in felony tax fraud and (2) to causing the person paying the independent contractor to incur civil tax liabilities and civil tax penalties that will cause the person hiring the independent contractor to fire the independent contractor and sue the independent contractor for money damages.

The proposed course of conduct of trying to use a bank account in a particular place to avoid paying taxes could also implicate both the independent contractor and the person paying the independent contractor as a co-conspirator in felony money laundering, which is a extraditable offense.