Tag: Income Tax Act (ITA)

Climate change and global warming are issues that have long been debated. Predictions as far back as 1982 regarding increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide are proving true.

There are tax benefits for registering a non-profit organisation as a Public Benefit Organisation (PBO) with the South African Revenue Service (SARS), whether such organisation is a non-profit company, trust or association.

Some South African tax residents working abroad, often referred to as 'expats', are grumbling about changes to the Income Tax Act, 1962 (the Act) which comes into effect on 1 March 2020.

The levy income of a body corporate, share block or an association of persons, such as a home owners association ('residential estate'), is exempt from income tax by virtue of section 10(1)(e) of the Income Tax Act.However, not all income received by a residential estate is exempt from tax, only levy income. SARS recently published a new Interpretation Note 64 on the levy exemption.

Statistics South Africa (StatSA) released the Community Survey in 2016 noting that a total of 94,760 South Africans have emigrated between 2006 and 2016. A more recent study performed by the Pew Research Centre in February 2018 notes that 900,000 people born in South Africa were living abroad for one year or longer. The top three destinations being United Kingdom, Australia and United States.

The general principle is that South African resident individuals who have settled offshore trusts are taxed on the income and capital gains of that trust (or its underlying subsidiary) in terms of the Income Tax Act, 1962 (the Act).  

Multinationals with South African group companies are required to adhere to South Africa’s transfer pricing legislation as found in section 31 of the Income Tax Act, 58 of 1962, which provisions in very simple terms require cross-border transactions (which include loans) to be conducted on an arm’s length basis.

The Draft Taxation Laws Amendment Bill has proposed an amendment in order to address the tax leakage through a double dip in the claiming of the medical scheme fees tax credit.

In the recent case of CSARS v Char Trade, the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) that prescription begins to run against CSARS when a return for secondary tax on companies (STC) is submitted to SARS by a taxpayer.

Section 1 of the Income Tax Act (ITA) defines a 'dividend' to be any amount transferred by a resident company for the benefit of any person in respect of any share in that company whether by way of a distribution or consideration for a share repurchase, but does not exclude a reduction of contributed tax capital of the company.