The Minister of Health has invoked powers under the Public Health Act, (Cap. 281) to issue rules and orders aimed at combating the coronavirus (COVID-19) in Uganda as below: The Public Health (Notification of COVID-19) Order, 2020 Under this Order, Covid-19 is declared a notifiable disease to which the provisions on prevention and suppression of infectious diseases under the Public Health Act (Cap. 281) apply ...
In response to efforts to curb the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, the Ministry of Health published regulations providing for the closure of various places including bars, schools and institutions of higher learning, bars, cinema halls, shopping malls, arcades, hardware shops, all shops and stores selling non- food items, salons, gymnasiums, massage parlours, hotels and lodging houses, motor repair workshops and garages, with a few exceptions ...
In the case of White Sapphire Ltd/Crane Bank Ltd vs the Commissioner General of the Uganda Revenue Authority (“URA”), the Ugandan High Court considered the notoriously controversial anti-avoidance provisions, in terms of which the benefits of a double tax agreement (“DTA”) concluded by Uganda would not be available where at least 50% of the underlying ownership of the resident of the other contracting state is not held by individuals resident in such other contr
In the recent Appeal Court case of Airtel Uganda Limited v. Uganda Revenue Authority, the provisions of section 15 of Uganda’s Tax Appeals Tribunal Act (TAT Act) and their wider implications came under scrutiny. In the case at hand, Airtel Uganda Limited (Airtel), a telecommunication company, lodged an objection to an assessment raised by the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) on 25 February 2004 with the Tax Appeals Tribunal (TAT) ...
There’s an interesting trade mark dispute under way about UGG. It touches on a range of IP issues – geographical indications, generic terms, country-of-origin brands and Chinese manufacture.Many readers will know that UGG is a sheepskin boot originating from Australia. UGG has apparently been around since the1930s, when it was created to deal with the cold winters in Australia (the Blue Hills region of New South Wales apparently can get cold) ...
The Unemployment Insurance Fund (“UIF”) has shed some light on what will happen to existing and outstanding COVID-19 Temporary Employer-Employee Relief Scheme (“TERS”) applications and payments, particularly over the festive season. We discuss the must-knows for employers below ...
UK Bribery Act: Serious Fraud Office publishes revised policies for facilitation payments, business expenditure and corporate self-reporting An important announcement for multinational organisations with business links in the United Kingdom. The Serious Fraud Office in the United Kingdom has published revised policies for facilitation payments, business expenditure and corporate self-reporting that take immediate effect ...
We have recently seen that the South African Revenue Service (“SARS”), in conducting audits in respect of taxpayer’s affairs, places reliance on section 99(4) of the Tax Administration Act, 2011 (“TAA”) to unilaterally extend the time period within which an assessment prescribes. Section 99(1) of the TAA deals with the period of limitation in respect of the issuance of assessments ...
Section 99 of the Tax Administration Act, 28 of 2011 (“Tax Admin Act”), which regulates prescription in relation to tax assessments, provides that a three-year prescription period applies where the South African Revenue Service (“SARS”) has had a previous opportunity to assess a taxpayer (e.g. income tax) and a five-year prescription period applies in the case of self-assessment (e.g. value added tax and employees’ tax) ...
In the 2017 South African Budget speech, the Minister of Finance raised government’s concern that the current Controlled Foreign Company (“CFC”) rules do not capture foreign companies held by interposed trusts or foundations, and it was announced that countermeasures for the treatment of foreign companies held by trusts or foundations will be considered ...
Two recent Labour Court decisions have highlighted the duty of trade unions and their officials to act to prevent unprotected strikes and unlawful actions during the course of a strike. These add to the growing list of decisions in which the court has indicated that it will hold unions accountable for unlawful acts by their members ...
A South African university has successfully objected to a domain name that incorporates the university’s nickname.North-West University (“NWU”), once an exclusively Afrikaans-language institution that’s situated in the city of Potchefstroom, and that was formerly known as the Potchefstroom University College – or PUK – for short (the Afrikaans word for “college” starts with “k”), opposed a registration for the domain name propuk.co.za ...
South Africa is in lockdown in the face of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, and although we aren’t able to meet face-to-face over this period, we know how important it is to stay in touch, and we will continue to keep you up-to-date on recent tax developments. In this regard, it feels like a lifetime ago that the South African Minister of Finance delivered his 2020 Budget Speech on 26 February 2020 ...
In terms of section 222(1) of the South African Tax Administration Act, 2011 (the “TAA”), “[i]n the event of an ‘understatement’ by a taxpayer, the taxpayer must pay, in addition to the ‘tax’ payable for the relevant tax period, the understatement penalty determined under subsection (2) unless the ‘understatement’ results from a bona fide inadvertent error” (our emphasis) ...
In line with international models, South Africa has attempted to incentivize investment into the development and renewal of certain urban areas. One of these incentives is the accelerated tax depreciation allowance, introduced in 2003 by section 13quat of the Income Tax Act, 1962 and is commonly referred to as the Urban Development Zone ("UDZ") allowance ...
“Use it or lose it”. It’s one of the fundamental principles of trade mark law – if a trade mark registration is not used, it’s liable to be lost. The principle makes perfect sense considering that a trade mark registration is effectively a monopoly (albeit one with limitations) to a name, logo or other form of branding. Monopolies should not and are not granted lightly ...
Use: it’s without question one of the biggest issues in trade mark law. It’s an issue that can come up in a number of scenarios. At least a genuine intention is needed to use a trade mark to get it registered. Considerable use may help get a trade mark registered in the face of various objections. Once registered, the trade mark needs to be used to make sure that the registration can’t be cancelled for non-use by a competitor ...
The recent South African High Court decision in the case of Howden Africa v CFW Industries is extremely interesting. Not so much for what it said (it said very little, comprising no more than two pages of ‘Written Reasons’), but for what it held. What happened here? A company had a registration for the trade mark Fumex Fans covering fire extraction fans ...
The judgment of the Supreme Court of Appeal (“SCA”), which established certain guidelines and principles regarding the claiming of input tax for value added tax (“VAT”) purposes in the Commissioner for South African Revenue Services v De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd (503/11) (1 June 2012) case may have far-reaching consequences for the private equity and venture capital industry ...
The recent amendments to the VAT legislation introduced by the Taxation Laws Amendment Act, No 31 of 2013, gives effect to government’s proposal that all foreign businesses supplying e-books, e-music and other digital goods and services in South Africa be required to register as South African value-added tax (“VAT”) vendors ...
The South African Revenue Service (“SARS”) issued Binding General Ruling No. 48 (“BGR 48”) on 25 July 2018, which provides much needed clarification for residential property developers following the recent cessation of relief under section 18B of the Value-Added Tax Act, 1991 (the “VAT Act”) ...
