On 20 June 2016, the South African National Treasury published draft Carbon Offsets Regulations (“draft regulations”), intended as a component of the proposed carbon tax. The draft regulations mark the next step in the process of bringing the carbon tax into operation by early 2017 ...
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (“OECD”)/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (“BEPS”) Project identified 15 actions based on the following three key themes, being: · the introduction of coherence in the domestic rules that affect cross-border activities; · the reinforcement of substance requirements in the existing international standards; and · the improvement of transparency and certainty ...
It is the long-standing practice of traders and service providers to grant customers extended payment terms for the goods or services they supply as a means to enhance turnover. Where the credit provided is interest-free, the question that arises is whether the provision of such credit impacts on the entitlement of the supplier to claim input tax for value added tax (“VAT”) purposes ...
A large percentage of closely held businesses restrict or even prohibit the owners’ ability to transfer their equity interests. Often these restrictions require the owner to sell the equity back to the entity or the other owners at a formula value, for example, book value, that is not anticipated to be a true fair market value. These and other permanent restrictions on equity interests are called nonlapse restrictions because by their terms they never go away or “lapse ...
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 ...
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (DRC): Refund of input VAT credit suspendedIn terms of the DRC value added tax (“VAT”) legislation, export businesses, companies ceasing their activities, oil and mining companies (during the exploration phase) and companies making significant investments are entitled to request input VAT credit refunds ...
In terms of the South African controlled foreign company ("CFC") legislation contained in section 9D of the Income Tax Act, 58 of 1962 (the "Act"), where South African residents directly or indirectly hold more than 50% of the total participation rights (essentially, the right to participate in the benefits of the rights attaching to a share) in a foreign company, a proportional amount of the “net income” of that foreign company (as a CFC) will be included in the income of those residents ...
Is the current international tax focus on base erosion and profit shifting (“BEPS”) relevant for tax-exempt pension funds? In particular, should the trustees and/or administrators of pension funds take note of the finalisation by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (“OECD”) of the 15 point action plan to address BEPS? Both of these questions should be answered “yes” by South African pension funds that invest outside of the country ...
With tax litigation becoming more prevalent in recent years, taxpayers are now faced with new issues.One such issue is: when and to what extent will documents bearing an electronic signature be acceptable under the relevant tax legislation?In this regard, section 255(2) of the Tax Administration Act No ...
On 15 April 2016, the Minister of Mineral Resources published the draft Reviewed Broad Based Black-Economic Empowerment Charter for the South African Mining and Minerals Industry 2016 (“the draft reviewed Mining Charter”) for public comment, addressing among other issues, the targets to be met by the mining industry in respect of the housing and living conditions of mine workers ...
The Panama Papers represent a leak of some 11.5 million files from a Panamanian based advisory firm, Mossack Fonseca. The leak provided information on offshore bank accounts and offshore trusts based in Panama, the British Virgin Islands and the Seychelles, among other jurisdictions. Many politicians and celebrities have been named, including the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, who is perhaps the highest profile individual named in this leak ...
Although a trust is a valuable financial, tax and estate planning tool, does it allow one to ?shelter? some assets from the public order rules which apply in the context of family law?What is a trust?A trust is a legal disposition which allows a person to transfer the ownership of one or more of his or her assets to a trust for the trust to administer such assets for the benefit of one or more beneficiaries ...
The South African Revenue Service (“SARS”) has introduced a new Tax Compliance Status System (“TCS”) from 18 April 2016 in an effort to improve compliance and to make it easier for taxpayers to manage their tax affairs. The Tax Compliance Status System is a holistic view of the tax compliance level across all registered tax types ...
The South African Revenue Service (“SARS”) is, in accordance with section 3(2)(j) of the Tax Administration Act, 28 of 2011 (the “TAA”), responsible for giving effect to the Country-by-Country Reporting Standard for Multinational Enterprises (the “CbC Reporting Standard”) which was developed under the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (“OECD’s“) base erosion and profit shifting (“BEPS”) Action Plan 13 – “Re-examine Transfer Pricing Documentation” ...
On 22 March 2016, the Organisation for Economic Development and Co-operation (“OECD”) released a standardised electronic format to facilitate the consistent and uniform preparation, filing and exchange of Country-by-Country (“CbC”) reports. The CbC reports will be transmitted between revenue authorities in accordance with the Extensible Markup Language Schema (“XML Schema”),which is a data structure for electronically holding and transmitting information ...
In the matter of ABC (Pty) Ltd v Commissioner for the South African Revenue Service (ITC 0038/2015) (“ABC case”), the Tax Court had to consider whether the taxpayer discharged the onus to prove that "exceptional circumstances" existed for an extension of the period allowed for the taxpayer to object to an assessment, in terms of section 104 of the Tax Administration Act, 28 of 2011 (“TAA”) ...
In South Africa, the determination of whether a foreign entity is a company or partnership is an important one, as it subsequently determines the applicable tax treatment of the foreign entity. The issue of whether foreign entities should be recognised as foreign companies or foreign partnerships in South Africa was recently brought into the spotlight once again by the Taxation Laws Amendment Act No. 25 of 2015 (the “2015 Amendment Act”) ...
On 13 April 2016, the South African Revenue Service (“SARS”) issued Binding Private Ruling 228 (“BPR 228”), which dealt with the issue whereby a project company becomes an operating company for the purpose of s8EA of the Income Tax Act, No 58 of 1962 (“ITA 1962”). This question is an important one in the context of financing the activities of renewable energy project companies but its relevance stretches further to many other infrastructure-related project companies ...
On 17 March 2016, the South African Revenue Service (“SARS”) issued an interesting binding private ruling (“BPR 227”) concerning a share subscription transaction which was followed by two share buyback transactions.BPR 227 deals with an area that National Treasury and SARS have identified as a problem, namely where a shareholder disposes of its shares through means of a share buyback as opposed to selling the shares outright to a third party ...
The Philippines section of The Tax Disputes and Litigation Review 4th Edition contains information on commencing disputes, including national and local taxes; courts and tribunals; penalties and remedies; tax claims, including recovering overpaid taxes, challenging administrative decisions, and claimants; costs; alternative dispute resolution; anti-avoidance; double taxation treaties; areas of focus; and outlook and conclusions. The section was contributed by SyCipLaw partner Carina C ...
The Paris Agreement (the “Agreement”) was signed on Friday, 22 April 2016 in New York. This adds further impetus to the international response to climate change and, for the local economy, it re-emphasises the importance of South Africa’s national greenhouse gas mitigation actions, including the carbon tax ...
Dear All,This is to inform you that the Federal Law no. 88-FZ “On amendments to articles 24 and 40.1 of Federal Law “About Banks and Bank Activity” and to the Federal Law “On voluntary declaration of assets and bank accounts/deposits by individuals and on introducing amendments to certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation” (further – the “Law”) was adopted on April 05, 2016 ...
