Tag: Taxpayers
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Provisional TAX
Provisional TAX What is provisional tax? Provisional tax is not a separate tax. It is an estimate of tax for the first six months of the tax year payable in August and then an estimate of the tax payable for the year payable in February. In essence therefore paid after six months of the year…
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Recent legislative changes relating to Trusts
Important information relating to recent legislative changes relating to trusts There have been significant changes made to legislation that affect trusts of which all trustees should be aware of. The majority of these came about after the recent grey-listing of South Africa by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and Treasury introduced measures to improve…
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The facts on Provisional Tax
The facts on Provisional Tax Understanding the ins and outs of taxes can seem daunting as an everyday taxpayer. It should not be a painstaking process to understand why your hard-earned money is allocated to certain taxes, and that is why we have taken it upon ourselves to explain some of the terminology and criteria.…
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Section 24C allowance: Future expenditure
The nature of a taxpayer’s business may be such that the taxpayer receives amounts under a contract that will be used to finance expenditure to be incurred in future in performing under that contract. Generally, this would result in an inclusion of the amount in that taxpayer’s income in that year of assessment. In contrast,…
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Should you pay tax on refundable deposits?
The South African Revenue Service recently published a new Interpretation Note relating to the taxation of deposits. In the ordinary course of business, taxpayers may receive money in advance in the form of deposits related to goods or services to be delivered or rendered at a future date. Having regard to the definition of “gross…
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Interest: SARS’ view on the in duplum rule
The in duplum rule originated from the South African common law and has been applied through South African case law for over 100 years. The rule aims to protect borrowers from exploitation by lenders that allow and, in some cases, cause interest to accumulate unabated: leading borrowers into further indebtedness. In terms of the common law, the interest charged on a…
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Tax disputes: Suspension of payment
With the 2020 tax filing season in full swing, many taxpayers are likely to engage in dispute proceedings as their income tax assessments are issued by SARS. This will particularly be the case where errors are contained on the so-called “auto-assessments” (which in itself is a misnomer). But what happens to the disputed tax amount until the process is finalised? Pay now, argue later The basic…
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Scammers posing as SARS officials are on the rise
In late August 2020, a large credit bureau in South Africa was the target of a data breach where millions of private individual and company data records were compromised. This data leakage, coupled with the tax filing season, makes for the perfect opportunity for taxpayers’ information to be abused, subjecting taxpayers to potential financial loss. Scammers thrive on the inherent vulnerability of taxpayers during the tax season and know how to capitalise on the taxpayers’ struggles in dealing with…
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Management of tax debt
With the tax filing season for individuals now closed, taxpayers may find themselves with tax debt that is due. This may be due to administrative penalties as a result of the non-submission of tax returns, the submission of a return without payment, only partial payment or debt arising from an audit assessment. The South African…
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Valuation of trading stock for tax purposes
On 27 September 2019, just over a year since delivering judgement in another matter with very similar facts, the Supreme Court of Appeal in CSARS v Atlas Copco South Africa (Pty) Ltd (834/2018) [2019] ZASCA 124 gave a judgement on the valuation of trading stock for income tax purposes. The general (and oversimplified) principle is that taxpayers are allowed, as a deduction, the value of opening trading stock…
