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What is your South African tax residence status?
Many South Africans leave the country. Some do so permanently, while others temporarily work and gain experience abroad. These persons often grapple with the question whether they are still considered to be South African tax residents. SARS recently added guidance on...
Tax on cryptocurrency transactions
Cryptocurrencies present lucrative trading as their short-term values fluctuate wildly. They may however also prove to be good longer term investments if the value ultimately grows substantially when held over a longer period of time. Over the past few months,...
Section 24C: The ‘contractual sameness’ requirement
Taxpayers may deduct an allowance for expenditure not yet incurred in the circumstances set out in section 24C of the Income Tax Act. This provision has been the subject of two disputes that proceeded to the Constitutional Court (‘CC’), which in itself is...
Exposure to penalties while in an assessed loss position
Introduction Taxpayers who find themselves in a loss-making position often intuitively assume that as long as they are not liable to pay tax due to the fact that they have an assessed loss, they would not be exposed to understatement penalties (‘USPs’). This...
Budget 2021: Tax proposals
The National Treasury published the Budget Review 2021 on 24 February 2021. This document contains the announcements of tax rates and scales, but also proposals for various tax amendments of a more technical nature that the National Treasury intends to make as part...
The 2020 tax amendments
The National Treasury recently published a number of bills that contain the amendments to the tax laws for the 2020 legislative cycle. This article reviews a selection of amendments that are likely to be of broad relevance to taxpayers and advisors. It is not intended...
The mechanics of asset-for-share transactions
Asset-for-share transactions qualify for relief under the corporate rule in section 42 of the Income Tax Act (‘the ITA’). In the course of advising on these transactions or reviewing transactions proposed to taxpayers, I realised that taxpayers are often not aware of...
Relevance of accounting standards to South African taxpayers
Income tax legislation and accounting standards generally operate independently. Despite the fact that both ultimately aim to determine a measure of profitability, each has its own definitions and methodology to achieve a specific purpose. There have always been clear...
Tax deductions for future expenses
Taxpayers are generally only entitled to deduct expenses in determining their taxable income when they actually incur the expenditure. Section 24C of the Income Tax Act provides an exception to this rule. This article provides a brief overview of the provision and...
Tax treatment of bad and doubtful debts
In the current business conditions lenders increasingly face the prospect of not being able to fully recover debts. These debts may include trade debts, for example, trade receivables, but also longer-term debts. This article provides an overview of the relevant tax...
Tax consequences of debt relief
Debt restructuring arrangements are likely to become more prevalent in the tough economic conditions that South Africa currently encounter. One of the key considerations when entering into such an arrangement is to understand the tax consequences. This article...
Telkom case: Exchange losses on shareholder loans
The Supreme Court of Appeal (‘the SCA’) delivered judgment in Telkom SA SOC Limited v C:SARS (Case no 239/19) [2020] ZASCA 19 on 25 March 2020. One of the matters considered in this case related to a deduction claimed by Telkom SA SOC Ltd (‘Telkom’) in respect of...
Tax proposals in the 2020 Budget Review
The National Treasury published its annual Budget Review on 26 February 2020 (‘the Budget Review’). The above-inflation proposed adjustments to the progressive tax brackets, rather than anticipated increases in tax rates, surprised many commentators. Chapter 4 and...
Timing of tax deductions for customer loyalty scheme costs
Section 24C of the Income Tax Act provides an allowance for certain obligations to incur expenditure in future. The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) delivered its judgment in the matter between C:SARS v Clicks Retailers (Pty) Ltd (‘the Clicks case’), which related to the...
Broadened anti-dividend stripping tax rules
The National Treasury announced in the 2019 Budget Review that the anti-dividend stripping rules will be amended to apply to certain dilutive arrangements that undermined these rules. The Taxation Laws Amendment Bill of 2019, which was introduced in Parliament on 30...
The amended foreign employment income exemption
Since 2000, when South Africa changed from a source-based to a residence-based tax system, South African residents earning employment income for services rendered outside South Africa enjoyed an exemption of such income if: the person spend more than 183 days outside...
Valuation of trading stock for tax purposes
A number of cases dealing with the valuation of trading stock have been considered by the courts in recent years. In C:SARS v Volkswagen SA (Pty) Ltd (‘VWSA case’) the SCA held that net realisable value (NRV), as determined for accounting purposes, does not reflect...
Proposed tax amendments for 2019
The draft Taxation Laws Amendment Bill for 2019 (draft TLAB) was published by the National Treasury on 21 July 2019. The draft bill contains proposals for amendments to be made as part of the 2019 legislative cycle. This article briefly reviews a selection of the...
Tax complexities of lease arrangements
The tax implications of lease arrangements may be inherently complex in nature. This includes the tax treatment of lease premiums and leasehold improvements. The tax court recently considered a case dealing with lease premiums in case no 14189. This article provides...
Assumption of contingent liabilities in restructuring transactions
The Income Tax Act contains a number of special rules, often referred to as the corporate rules, to facilitate certain restructuring arrangements in a tax neutral manner. These rules were amended in 2017 by the addition of a definition of debt, which specifically...
VAT: Separation of supplies into parts
Where a supply consists of parts that would be subject to different VAT rates if consideration had been charged separately for each part, the VAT Act requires that such parts be treated as separate supplies (section 8(15) of the VAT Act). This article briefly reviews...
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