VAT Pocket Guide

Budget Speech 2018/2019 – VAT Pocket Guide

In the 2018/2019 Budget Speech, Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba announced that Value-Added Tax would increase from 14% to 15%. This will take effect on 1 April 2018. Please fill in the contact form below to learn more. 

2018 Tax Season

Why SARS Shortened the 2018 Filing Season and the Impact Thereof

We are one month away from the opening of ‘tax filing season’, however, this year things will be a bit different. Taxpayers will have until 31 October to submit their tax returns, which is three weeks shorter than usual and will increase efficiency according to acting SARS Commissioner, Mark Kingon. In a media statement on […]

Tax Season 2017 is Open

The tax season opened on the 1st of July for individuals to submit their Income Tax returns.

The deadline dates differ according to the method of submission and is as follows:

  • 2 September 2017 for manually submitted returns;
  • 24 November 2017 for returns submitted electronically at a SARS branch or via e-filling; or
  • 31 January 2018 for returns submitted by provisional taxpayers via e-filling.

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Who should Complete a Tax Return? Government Gazette, 9 June 2017

In terms of section 25 of the Tax Administration Act, 2011, Commissioner for SARS Tom Moyane promulgated Public Notice 547, which sets out the requirements for which persons how to submit income tax returns for 2017 year of assessment. In terms of section 25 of the Tax Administration Act, read with section 66(1) of the Income Tax Act, persons specified in terms of paragraph 2 of the Public Notice 547 are required to submit an income tax return within the prescribed period in paragraph 4 of the said Public Notice.

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SARS to Exchange Tax Information with over 50 Jurisdictions

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has committed to the automatic exchange of tax information with the revenue authorities of over 50 other jurisdictions under the Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD) Common Reporting Standard (CRS) by September 2017.

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Increase of the Scale of Benefits

The Unemployment Insurance Amendment Act, No. 10 of 2016 (“the Act”), is aimed at having a positive effect on the country’s labour force. Furthermore, there are likely to be positive effects on the economy as well.

The Act will see those who lose their jobs receive money for a longer period when they apply for unemployment benefits. The UIF benefits have been increased from 238 days to 365 days. A further change here is that employees will be able to apply for benefits over twelve (12) months as opposed to six (6) months as was the situation prior to the amendment.

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Expatriate Tax Exemption & Budget Speech Announcement 2017/18 and Social Media Comments

Update: Expatriate Tax Exemption and Rebutting the Fake News Spreaders

We have noted with concern the comments made on various posts about fake news. Some comments include listening to the whole budget speech and not finding any reference. Our only intention is to share the correct tax position, to allow proactive planning (as various legitimate planning opportunities will remain viable, through using international tax law, which SARS cannot legislate against) for affected South African expatriates abroad.
The budget speech contains various tax technical proposals. These are obviously not verbally announced, but they are still published with the speech. If you deal with tax, you will know they are the pre-cursor to law, and whilst not promulgated yet, the law process logically follow, as a policy decision has been made. For those who wish to validate as authentic. See http://www.treasury.gov.za/. Go to Budget 2017.
When you click thereon, select you will see the following and click on Tax Matters and Revenue Laws
Click on Annexure C – Additional Tax Policy and Administrative Adjustments
Go to page 8 (of 16) and see –
Please note the actual law amendment has not been drafted. Also, there is very good international tax planning which can be done to minimize your tax position, whilst remaining fully tax complaint. We will do additional updates as the law is published and to recommend tax planning and compliance considerations.

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Budget 2017: Tax Changes

BUDGET 2017: TAX CHANGES

The 2017 budget lived up to the expectation created by the Finance Minister with the medium term budget policy statement late last year in which it was made clear that R28bn in additional tax revenue must be generated.

Tax increases were announced as follows:

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Objections and Appeals: The Helpless Taxpayer?

OBJECTIONS AND APPEALS:THE HELPLESS TAXPAYER?

Only assessments and certain prescribed decisions are subject to objection and appeal in terms of section 104 of the Tax Administration Act, No. 28 of 2011 (“the TAA”). There are a multitude of decisions that can be made by SARS and that are not subject to objection and appeal. These include but are not limited to:

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