Tax

High political drama in the opening weeks of Parliament aside, most South African business and personal taxpayers are expecting tax hikes across the board from the Finance Minister’s Budget Speech on 21 February. Government already faces a yawning budget deficit, aggravated by the need to find billions of rand to fund a new and unbudgeted-for commitment to free tertiary education.

Ahead of the 2018 Budget Speech, Treasury’s options to raise revenue are becoming increasingly limited. Treasury will need to think outside the box this year if it is to make any meaningful difference to its current revenue shortfall, estimated to currently stand at around R50.8 billion.

The big question on everyone’s lips however, is twofold: How will cryptocurrency be taxed by the South African Revenue Service (SARS) and what will the exchange control standpoint of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) be?

The curtains have come down on section 18B of the Value-Added Tax Act, No. 89 of 1991 (VAT Act) and the resultant impact may catch a few residential property developers off-guard.

The National Treasury published the Second Draft Carbon Tax Bill for introduction in Parliament on 26 December 2017, as well as public comment and convening of public hearings by Parliament, which is expected to be early in 2018. Following that process, a revised Bill will be formally tabled in Parliament, which is expected to be by mid-2018.

The proposal to tax the sugar content of beverages first came to light in the 2016 Budget. On 5 December 2017, after 18 months of debate, Parliament adopted the tax on sugary beverages (Sugar Tax), which is expected to commence on 1 April 2018. 

There are many different cryptocurrencies, the most well-known being Bitcoin. Bitcoin is a convertible virtual currency, in other words, it has an equivalent value...

Ernest Mazansky, Tax Director, Werksmans Attorneys and Dr Ivor Blumenthal, discuss the controversy of the recent leak of hacked client records called the Paradise...

Ernest Mazansky | Tax Director | Werksmans Attorneys | emazansky@werksmans.com | www.werksmans.com | This seems to be much of a replay of the Panama Papers.  But I...

Kyle Mandy | Tax Policy Leader | PwC | mail me |  Following the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) delivered on 25 October 2017...