Finance Minister Tito Mboweni delivered his third annual budget address on 24 February 2021. Below we highlight some of the significant proposals, which will likely be contained in the Draft Taxation Laws Amendment Bill to be published for public comment in June or July 2021. Applying tax on withdrawals of retirement interest when an individual ceases to be a tax resident When an individual ceases …
Tax residency and deemed disposals
In 2001, South Africa, like many other countries, introduced capital gains tax aimed at levying capital gains tax on the gain made from the disposal of certain assets. When a South African tax resident company redomiciles abroad and changes its tax residency to another tax jurisdiction, such a company ceases to be a tax resident for South African income tax purposes (regardless of whether the assets of such a company are …
Scammers posing as SARS officials are on the rise
In late August 2020, a large credit bureau in South Africa was the target of a data breach where millions of private individual and company data records were compromised. This data leakage, coupled with the tax filing season, makes for the perfect opportunity for taxpayers’ information to be abused, subjecting taxpayers to potential financial loss. Scammers thrive on the inherent vulnerability of taxpayers during the tax season and know how to capitalise on the taxpayers’ struggles in dealing with SARS and their fear of the …
How does the Budget Speech affect you, your property transactions and your estate?
On 21 February 2018, Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba delivered his 2018 Budget Speech.Hereby a summary of the most significant proposals for the 2018/2019 Budget as tabled by the Minister of Finance: 2018/2019 Tax Proposals: VAT: A one percentage point (1%) increase in VAT from 14% to 15%. No adjustments to the top four income tax brackets. Below inflation adjustments to …
Tax ombud – recourse for aggrieved taxpayers
The Tax Administration Act that came into effect on 1 October 2012 is a valiant attempt to balance the rights of the tax man with those of the taxpayer. One of the ways of bolstering the taxpayer’s position on this not very level playing field is the creation of the office of the ombudsman or tax ombud. Exactly one year …