Dividend-stripping case sharpens the boundaries of legitimate tax planning
The Tax Court has affirmed the choice principle but raised fresh questions about where legitimate tax-efficient structuring ends and impermissible avoidance begins.
Tax
Tax uncertainty clouds offshore trust distributions
Practitioners warn that applying section 7(8) to cross-border trust distributions could create onerous and potentially perpetual tax and compliance consequences.
Refundable ‘premium’ sinks taxpayer’s insurance deduction
The High Court finds that most of the payment was a recoverable, interest-bearing deposit rather than expenditure incurred for genuine insurance cover.
SARS draft guide sets out tax implications for crypto transactions
Crypto users may trigger tax consequences through swaps, staking, mining, payments, employment benefits, or donations, even where no rand conversion takes place.
Trust tax filings jump as penalties start to roll out
Trustees face growing pressure to file outstanding returns or formally deregister dormant trusts before penalties escalate.
Data integrity emerges as the new tax risk frontier
Companies are under growing pressure to prove that the figures in returns, financial statements, and supporting documents all tell the same story.
SA closer to advance pricing regime, but thresholds threaten access
The new APA process aims to reduce disputes and double taxation, but practitioners say the entry bar is so high that few groups will qualify.
ConCourt ruling expands GAAR reach and raises investor risk
A wider interpretation of ‘party’ under GAAR means even commercially sound participants may face SARS’s scrutiny in multi-entity transactions.
Tax Court clarifies VAT treatment of cashback and fee rebates
The Court finds that cashback credits reduced the original fee, rather than constituting payment for a separate supply by customers.
SARS says poor employer data is disrupting auto-assessments
As third-party submissions open, SARS urges employers to file early and accurately or risk triggering errors, delays and taxpayer verifications.
Tax amendments materially narrow understatement penalty defence
The bona fide inadvertent error defence is limited to substantial understatements, but there is relief for taxpayers seeking to challenge estimated assessments.
Businesses should weigh VAT deregistration carefully
Rising the VAT threshold to R2.3m may prompt some businesses to deregister, but the process can trigger an immediate output tax liability on assets.
VAT decision highlights constitutional defects across tax Acts
Tax experts say the constitutional problem identified by the High Court could affect several other laws that give the finance minister similar powers.
When does switching into an offshore endowment make sense?
Allan Gray explores how embedded gains, tax rates, investment horizon, and executor’s fees affect the decision to switch offshore investments into endowments.
GAAR assessments cannot be rewritten in litigation, SCA rules
SARS cannot fundamentally alter the factual basis or remedy of an assessment issued under the general anti-avoidance rule provisions through a Rule 31 statement.
CARF expands SARS’s visibility over crypto transactions, says PwC
The new reporting regime, effective from 1 March, increases the information available to SARS through third-party reporting and international data exchange.
Smart tech boosts compliance, yet R646bn tax debt looms large
Using AI and third-party data, SARS identified some 100 000 high-income earners who were not registered for tax.
