March 4, 2020
Section 9H of the Income Tax Act deals with matters relating to the cessation of residency in South Africa. This section essentially states that where a person that is a resident ceases to be a resident during any year of assessment, that person must be treated as having disposed of his assets on the date immediately prior to ceasing his residency, and re-acquiring the same assets on a date immediately thereafter. This is referred to as a “deemed disposal”. Similarly, the year of assessment will be deemed to have ended immediately prior to the cessation and to have started on […]
March 4, 2020
What is section 7C? This section of the Income Tax Act is an anti-avoidance measure aimed at transactions between connected persons and trusts, where a trust is funded by low interest or interest-free loans. This is usually done to ensure that assets form part of the trust’s capital, and the funder (who is usually a trustee or founder of the trust) allows for the transfer of ownership of the assets, and the creation of a loan account in said person’s favour. The sections allow for any loan, advance or credit by a connected person, directly or indirectly to a trust, […]
March 4, 2020
BPR 338 deals with the tax treatment of payments made to a Public Benefit Organisation (PBO) at a fundraising event, under section 30 of the Income Tax Act. The ruling is essentially an interpretation of section 18A of the Act and seeks to clarify the situation for PBOs and funders. In terms of the transaction, the Applicant (a resident company registered as a PBO) will host an event for the explicit purpose of fundraising, but this event will be managed by a third-party events management company. As is commonplace, persons attending the events will make payments to participate in activities […]
February 5, 2020
In terms of section 99 of the Tax Administration Act, 28 of 2011, an assessment may not be made three years after the date of an original assessment by the South African Revenue Service (SARS), or in the case of a self-assessment by a taxpayers (such as in the case of a Value-Added Tax return), five years after the date of an original assessment. These periods are generally referred to as the prescription rules and are in place to ensure that finality is eventually brought to a tax period. Essentially, therefore, the prescription rules provide that tax periods do not […]
February 5, 2020
Farming is a qualifying activity under the Diesel Refund Scheme. Most farming enterprises will qualify to be registered for the Diesel Refund Scheme. The person carrying on the farming enterprise may, therefore, apply for registration with the Diesel Refund Scheme, provided the enterprise is registered for VAT. In terms of section 75(1C)(a)(iii) of the Customs and Excise Act 91 of 1964 (the section): “the Commissioner may investigate any application for a refund of such levies on distillate fuel to establish whether the fuel has been… (iii) delivered to the premises of the user and is being stored and used or has been used in accordance […]
February 5, 2020
With the tax filing season for individuals now closed, taxpayers may find themselves with tax debt that is due. This may be due to administrative penalties as a result of the non-submission of tax returns, the submission of a return without payment, only partial payment or debt arising from an audit assessment. The South African Revenue Service (“SARS”) provides assistance to taxpayers in managing their tax debt. As an initial phase, SARS will remind taxpayers of the amount of tax due before the due date. This is done by way of an assessment with the relevant due date indicated thereon […]
January 23, 2020
South Africa has a residence-based tax system, which means residents are taxed on their worldwide income, regardless of where that income was earned. South African tax residents living overseas and earning remuneration in respect of services rendered outside of South Africa are exempt from tax in South Africa, provided that the individual is outside of South Africa for a period or periods exceeding 183 full days (60 of which have to be continuous days of absence), during any 12 month period. There is currently no limitation on the foreign employment income exemption. From 1 March 2020, the first R1 million earned from foreign service income will be exempt from tax in South Africa, provided more than 183 days are spent outside […]
January 23, 2020
On 27 September 2019, just over a year since delivering judgement in another matter with very similar facts, the Supreme Court of Appeal in CSARS v Atlas Copco South Africa (Pty) Ltd (834/2018) [2019] ZASCA 124 gave a judgement on the valuation of trading stock for income tax purposes. The general (and oversimplified) principle is that taxpayers are allowed, as a deduction, the value of opening trading stock during a year of assessment, while the value of the closing trading stock is required to be included in taxable income. From a tax perspective, the higher the value attributed to closing stock at the end of a tax year, the lower the cost of sales for that […]
September 27, 2019
Al hoe meer werkgewers laat gesalarieerde werknemers toe om van die huis af te werk ten einde vermorsing van produktiewe ure terwyl hulle pendel, te vermy. Sodanige werknemers kan ’n tuiskantoor-aftrekking eis (wat toegelaat word onder die afdeling “Ander Aftrekkings” van die persoonlike inkomstebelastingopgawe of ITR12-vorm) indien daar aan sekere streng vereistes voldoen word. Die aftrekbaarheid van hierdie uitgawes word bepaal deur artikel 11 (veral paragrawe (a), (d) en (e), saamgelees met artikels 23 (b) en 23(m) van die Wet op Inkomstebelasting[1]). Die vereistes van al hierdie bepalings moet nagekom word voordat die betrokke werknemer vir die tuiskantoor-aftrekking kwalifiseer. In […]