Budget 3.0 coming after court-backed VAT suspension and new Rates Bill
SARS tells vendors there is now no legal basis for them to charge consumers VAT of 15.5% from 1 May.
#NationalAssembly
MPs push for deeper financial sector transformation
The Finance and the Trade and Industry committees will engage with roleplayers from across the sector before finalising a report that will be tabled in Parliament.
Enforcement is the Achilles’ heel in contribution compliance, says Adjudicator
The FSCA, National Treasury, and the Pension Funds Adjudicator tell MPs what they are doing to address the non-payment of retirement fund contributions. Regulatory interventions other than COFI may be in the offing.
R300m a year: the price tag of administering the two-pot system
The FSCA is evaluating whether administration fees are reasonable. If it believes they are not, it will explore whether it is necessary to cap or regulate fees.
Treasury accepts most of the industry’s two-pot proposed amendments
Among other things, the revised Amendment Bill will clarify how funds should calculate seeding when provident fund members choose to join the system.
ASISA flags ‘problematic’ amendments to two-pot legislation
Funds made different calls on the conditions for the exclusion of provident preservation fund members and the seeding date for members who opt in.
Tax on savings component withdrawals benefits low-income earners, says Treasury
The tax structure aims to be progressive, with low-income earners paying little to no tax on withdrawals, while high earners are taxed more.
Treasury addresses industry’s main concerns about Pension Funds Amendment Bill
An application clause will provide for the Pension Funds Act to prevail over the Divorce Act where the Acts’ provisions conflict.
Industry red-flags contradictions between Divorce Act and pension law amendments
The Association for Savings and Investment SA and the Institute of Retirement Funds Africa also call for amendments not related to the two-pot system to be held over.
Two-pot legislation speed bump – the Amendment Bill must be amended to include public sector funds
The Pension Bill will prohibit members from making a withdrawal from the savings component if the withdrawal results in insufficient funds remaining to settle a court order.
Two pots: proposed implementation date is neither 1 March 2024 nor 1 March 2025
The Minister of Finance responds to the Standing Committee on Finance’s call for the implementation date to be moved to 1 March next year.
Urgent need to close regulatory gaps in over-the-counter markets, says FSCA
National Treasury will introduce the COFI Bill ‘very soon’ and amend the Financial Markets Act to tighten regulation of the country’s financial markets.
Two pots: MPs envisage staggered implementation
The finance committee’s decision seems, in part, to be based on the assumption that some fund administrators will be ready to ‘go live’ on 1 March next year.
