Tax insights

Global warming has become a topical issue across the world. The dying of marine life in the sea and dramatic temperature changes across the globe cannot go unnoticed. A lot has to be done to protect Mother Earth. Tax incentives are welcomed by companies as this will boost their after tax profits while at the same time help to save the environment.

Most taxpayers are not aware of the requirements for a tax refund to be facilitated and SARS very often will delay paying out the refund.

We all know that keeping track of your personal tax filing obligations can be difficult to track at times. To add to the complexity, it does not help that you could potentially be required to address filing obligations for 3 different tax years in one calendar year. We set out below the due dates for all tax return filings in a tax year:

International trading has become more and more customary for both individuals and companies, with imports and exports, as well as foreign investment becoming easier as the world becomes smaller with the help of internet, e-commerce, and so forth. This has led to more taxpayers having foreign currency assets and/or liabilities.

South African Revenue Services (“SARS”) in their Tax Laws Amendment Bill of 19 July 2017, supported by the Explanatory Memorandum thereto, acknowledged that a common mechanism used in practice by taxpayers to enable a debtor to settle a debt is for that debt to be converted into equity.

The South African Revenue Service (“SARS”) issued a media release on 16 April 2018 where they advised that they have started, together with the National Prosecuting Authority (“NPA”), to prosecute non-compliant taxpayers who have failed to submit their returns. Taxpayers who are found guilty will have a criminal record.

Land expropriation without compensation is a controversial topic in South Africa. Proponents of this topic mention the following benefits, amongst others: 

Employers are able to compensate their employees, for costs incurred in respect of business travel, in a number of ways. One of the generally accepted methods of compensation is to reimburse the employee based on mileage travelled.

Former Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba announced on 21 February 2018 that South Africans would now be paying 15% Value-Added Tax for standard rated supplies as of 01 April 2018.

On 21 February 2018 we were presented with the Budget Speech by current Minister of Finance, Malusi Gigaba. It was widely accepted that drastic steps would be proposed in the Budget Speech in order to address the revenue shortfall of R48.2 billion, an amount that is slightly lower than the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) of R50.8 billion.