By: Ronnie van Rooyen Introduction In South Africa, customs duty is levied on all products imported into the South African Customs Union (SACU). Interestingly, SACU is the world’s oldest customs union and has its origin in a convention held in 1889 between the British Colony…
Accountancy SA Members are reminded that the tax treatment of variable remuneration changed with effect 1 March 2013. The position is that both the accrual to the employee and the deduction of the expenditure incurred by the employer will take place on the date during…
The Capital Gains Tax rules appear to ‘punish’ those who leave the country Some of the ‘colours’ in our ‘rainbow’ come from beyond our shores, and many people originally hailing from other countries have spent a major portion of their lives here. However, such people…
Failing to pay provisional tax when you are obliged to do so can result in costly penalties, so if you have any doubts about whether you’re a provisional taxpayer or not, it’s best to check. You may qualify as a provisional taxpayer if you earn…
Income Tax The revised draft legislation on the special voluntary disclosure programme (SVDP) proposes to simplify how tax will be calculated on offshore assets derived from undeclared income. The SVDR which was announced in this year’s Budget speech, will provide taxpayers who have been dodging…
In the Budget Speech of 2013 it was announced that a withholding tax on services would be introduced. The initial date was 2014 but implementation was subsequently postponed and the new effective date is 1 January 2016. The purpose of the introduction of a withholding…
When the South African Revenue Service (SARS) issues an assessment, the pay-now-argue-later rules apply. For a business this can seriously affect their cash flow, especially when they feel aggrieved by the assessment and intend challenging it by lodging an objection. The law does make provision…
6-month opportunity for taxpayers to declare overseas income Taxpayers with offshore assets need to disclose them to the South African Revenue Services (SARS) before time runs out. There is an opportunity to voluntarily disclose overseas assets and income and any exchange control contraventions that occurred…
South African Revenue Services (SARS) administers a voluntary disclosure programme under the Tax Administration Act for (only) tax non-compliance. South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has a less formal voluntary disclosure programme for (only) exchange control contravention. These two programmes are not coordinated. South Africa and…
South Africa has a residence-based tax system, which means you must pay tax in this country on your assets, regardless of where in the world they are. If you have not disclosed assets to the South African Revenue Service for tax purposes, it is likely…