Tax insights

South African Tax Law currently stipulates that if a South African resident works outside the Republic for more than 183 full days (in aggregate) in any 12 month period and for a continuous period exceeding 60 full days during that 12 month period, the foreign employment income earned is exempt from income tax within the Republic irrespective of whether the residen

South African Tax Law currently stipulates that if a South African resident works outside the Republic for more than 183 full days (in aggregate) in any 12 month period and for a continuous period exceeding 60 full days during that 12 month period, the foreign employment income earned is exempt from income tax within the Republic irrespective of whether the residen

The advent of dividends withholding tax (DWT) on 1 April 2012 shifted the liability for tax on dividends from the company to the shareholder.

In October 2016 South African Revenue Services (SARS) issued regulations obligating taxpayers who met certain criteria to maintain and retain specific documentation, as detailed in the regulations, with regards to cross border connected party transactions. Following on from this, they have issued two further documents.

There has been much ado of late regarding taxpayer refunds that have been delayed by the South African Revenue Service (SARS). Whether this delay has sinister implications is a discussion for another time. Practically the taxpayer must understand what his or her rights are in terms of their refunds.

Another tax year has come to an end and the 2017 tax filing season for all individuals opened on 1 July 2017. This is the time when each individual who has received income during the period of 1 March 2016 to 28 February 2017 will need to submit their Income Tax Returns to SARS, either via eFiling or by means of going in to a SARS branch.

Notification from SARS for re-submission of 2017 employer annual reconciliation declaration (EMP501) and associated IRP5 /IT3(A) certificates

Section 24I requires that a gain or loss on a foreign exchange transaction be included in or deducted from the income of a taxpayer carrying on a trade within the Republic. In essence, section 24I taxes all gains and losses, whether it is realised or not relating to any foreign exchange transactions.

This article is intended to assist individual taxpayers in understanding their status as a provisional taxpayer. To fully comprehend who qualifies as a provisional taxpayer, we will look at the definition of a provisional taxpayer. A provisional taxpayer is:

In the Tax Administration Act, South African Revenue Service (“SARS”) sets out the requirements for the public officer of a company. A public officer is an individual who is residing in South Africa and must be a registered taxpayer with SARS. The individual representative who is approved by SARS must be a senior official of the company.