Access upon emigration National Treasury has issued a draft Explanatory Memorandum on the Draft Taxation Laws Amendment Bill 2020, dated 31 July 2020. Under para 1.4 of the Explanatory Memorandum, the proposal is made to amend the definitions of a ‘pension...

Tax Ombud’s report 2020 Tucked away in point 38.2 of the sixty-one-page Report and occupying only a half-page is, in my experience of the tax dispute-resolution process, a valuable finding and recommendation by the Tax Ombud, on non-meritorious additional assessments:...

Recent case In circumstances in which a taxpayer fails to pay a ‘tax debt’ (defined in s 1 read with s 169(1) of the Tax Administration Act as being an amount due or payable to SARS), a senior SARS official may, under s 179, issue a notice to a third party holding a...

National Treasury, on 1 May 2020, issued an explanatory memorandum on the revised draft Disaster Management Tax Relief Bill, 2020 which, amongst other things, addresses a proposed increase in the living annuity commutation threshold. This is a draft Bill which is yet...

Living annuity Generally a living annuity (as distinct from a conventional life annuity, under which a fixed rate of return for life is contractually agreed) is a compulsory purchased investment from a financial institution with a minimum two-thirds of a retirement...

Historically, the R100 000 a year donations tax exemption was popularly applied to write down trust loan accounts by estate-planning trust founders/creditors. But, as I said in 201 TSH 2019, any tax-structuring should always take cognizance of its impact upon other...

The s 10(1)(o)(ii) exemption for foreign employment income of tax residents was originally proposed to be limited to R1 million, with effect as from 1 March 2020. This will be increased to R1,25 million, according to Chapter 4 of the Budget Review, published along...

Overview of the tax implications ‘Funder’ attribution There is no straightforward, standard rule in advising an RSA beneficiary of the tax implications of a vested right awarded by the trustees of a foreign trust by way of a distribution. First, you need to enquire...

CGT, estate duty and income tax upon death Any tax-structuring should always take cognisance of its impact on other taxes. For CGT purposes, the default position is that a deceased person is assessed on a ‘deemed disposal’ as at date of death, with the death-exclusion...

A change of tax-residency status is the only sure-fire way to fully obviate the impact of the RSA tax on foreign employment income exceeding R1 million, effective as from 1 March 2020. As I said in 192 TSH 2019, your tax-residency status is one of fact and determined...

SARS has recently issued a draft binding general ruling on the two-tier donations tax regime (see the Monthly Listing).Dual rate of donations tax An amendment came into operation on 1 March 2018, to the effect that a 20% rate applies to the aggregate value of property...