Legal

With the corporate tax collection deficit announced in September 2023, South African Revenue Service (SARS) is dead set on filling at least this fiscal pothole. How will they do this you may ask; well, amongst other avenues, SARS are exploiting the Tax Administration Act, which provides for instances in which the representative taxpayer, employer, or vendor, will be held personally liable for a company’s tax debt!

The fiscal pressures on South African Revenue Service's (SARS) tax collection appear to have now compelled SARS to actively initiate the arrest and prosecution of taxpayers who do not accurately declare their taxable income. For long time, it has been warned that SARS possesses third-party information from banks, financial institutions, estate agents, car dealerships etc., enabling them to identify those who are not declaring their income correctly.

The courts have found that the employee is protected by labour law from the moment the employment contract is concluded even if the employee has not yet started work. For example, in the case of Wyeth SA (Pty) Ltd vs Manqele (People Dynamics, September 2003 page 39). Manqele was offered a position by the employer as a sales rep.

The Supreme Court of Appeal has reaffirmed that if a written contract provides that any variation of its terms must be in writing, any purported variation by the parties which is not in writing will be void. Trying to get around the non-variation clause by relying on estoppel was not successful.

The Johannesburg High Court has ruled that the current law regulating maternity leave, adoption leave and surrogacy leave in South Africa is unconstitutional and invalid, on the basis that it discriminates against different types of parents and violates their dignity and the interests of their children. 

Local and cross-border private equity (PE) investors continue to support the growth and development of companies in South Africa and the economy. With an increase in the establishment of PE funds both globally and in South Africa, as well as their appetite for investing in emerging markets, keeping track of the approach of PE funds and M&A lawyers to legal aspects surrounding PE deal-making is becoming increasingly important.

For most landlords, tenant evictions are a last resort, due to the substantial expense, lengthy time and emotionally taxing nature of this complex process. However, with the Q2 2023 PayProp Rental Index revealing that the number of tenants in arrears has risen to an alarming 18.4% - the highest figure recorded since 2021 - many have found themselves with no choice but to seek legal recourse.

It is key for organisations to have line of sight into processes and procedures that clearly define employee use cases when it comes to ChatGPT. ChatGPT, a generative artificial intelligence (GAI) developed by OpenAI designed to generate human-like text based on the input it receives, was quick to break records when it was launched on 30 November 2022.

The Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Commission (B-BBEE Commission) has published a notice explaining how a complaint about fronting may be lodged and how it will respond. The B-BBEE Commission recently published an explanatory notice on its fronting investigations. It may investigate fronting on its own initiative or as a result of complaints received.

All taxpayers should arrange their tax affairs to obtain the best advantage and to pay the least amount of tax. This is a right every taxpayer possesses, and well entrenched in South African and international tax law. However, this planning must be done within the constraints of what the law allows.