Tag: Joon Chong

When the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) hears the Standard Bank vs SARB appeal in 2026, the court will decide whether the 1961 Exchange Control Regulations can stretch to cover Bitcoin. This moment will define whether a borderless digital asset fits inside legislation written before computers existed. The stakes sit high, especially as the crypto crackdown intensifies across South Africa.

If South African tax were a fable, it would feature three enduring characters: the weary taxpayer, the watchful SARS, and the elusive concept known as certainty. All three appear in our legislation, but only one consistently shows up in practice - SARS.

National Treasury has proposed three major amendments affecting portfolios of Collective Investment Schemes (CISs) in the draft Taxation Laws Amendment Bill, 2025 (TLAB). The National Treasury’s vicious crackdown aims to close several tax loopholes and strengthen compliance within the CIS framework.

The Supreme Court of Appeal’s recent decision in Assmang (Pty) Ltd vs The Commissioner for the South African Revenue Service (SARS) has sent a clear and sobering message to taxpayers. In tax law, substance always trumps form. While this principle is not new, its application in the context of diesel refunds highlights the immense peril taxpayers face. The Assmang diesel refund case illustrates this danger vividly.

The Gauteng High Court recently dismissed the appeal of Unitrans Holdings (Unitrans) against the Tax Court judgment which had denied a tax deduction for interest incurred. The court found that the interest incurred was not closely connected to Unitrans’ business operations as an investment holding company and that the purpose of the interest was not to produce income but to further the interests of the subsidiaries.

Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana will deliver the 2024 Budget Review to Parliament next week as the South African economy faces a gloomy economic outlook. The economy is still recovering from the impact of COVID-19 and state capture.

Revisions to the draft legislation on the “two-pot” system for retirement funds were published on 9 June 2023, incorporating proposals mentioned in Chapter 4 of the 2023 Budget Review.

The National Budget delivered by South Africa’s Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana, showed that government is making some significant financial commitments to restore Eskom to viability and maintain social grants. But with GDP growth projected at 1.4% on average from 2023 to 2025, and a potential tapering-off of the commodities boom over the medium term, how will government fund these commitments?

On 29 July 2022, National Treasury released the 2022 Draft Revenue Laws Amendment Bill for public comment until 29 August 2022 to introduce the 'two-pot' system for retirement savings that was flagged in the National Budget.

In a recent conference, National Treasury Acting DG Ismail Momoniat explained National Treasury’s views on the two-pot retirement system, governance of umbrella funds and changes to Regulation 28. Ismail Momoniat, Acting Director-General at National Treasury (NT), addressed the recent Pension Lawyers Association Virtual Conference in May 2022 with an update on retirement reform developments.