Browsing by Author "Ram, Asheer Jaywant"

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    A panoptic view of the South African wealth tax
    (AOSIS, 2025-01) Ram, Asheer Jaywant
    Background: Wealth taxes are a topic of intense debate, with most countries having either abolished them or considered, but not implemented such measures. The South African government is contemplating the introduction of a wealth tax, purportedly to enhance revenue collection. Aim: This article examines whether the proposed South African wealth tax functions as a government panopticon, offering an alternative explanation for its introduction. It also considers the government’s transparency regarding the potential wealth tax. Setting: This article examined the opinions of tax experts in South Africa. Method: An interpretive approach is adopted. The traits of the wealth tax and the themes of the panopticon are identified and used as the row and column headings in a correspondence table, which serves as the research instrument distributed to tax experts. The tax experts indicate any associations between the themes of the panopticon and the traits of the wealth tax. Forty aggregated responses are subjected to correspondence analysis. Results: The potential wealth tax functions as a panopticon. It identifies and reveals relevant tax information about high-wealth individuals, appearing to coerce their compliance. Conclusion: There is credence to the alternate rationale for introducing a wealth tax in South Africa. Contribution: This is one of the first articles to apply the panopticon, a novel theoretical framework, in a tax context in South Africa. The findings are relevant to the exploration of similar taxes in other jurisdictions and provide a means for the critical evaluation of the motives behind tax policy decisions made by governments.
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    Accounting for the bitcoin: an initial perspective
    (2016-04-06) Ram, Asheer Jaywant
    The Bitcoin is a form of decentralised virtual money, which exists solely electronically and transcends international boundaries and regulations. Given its innovative characteristics and increasing popularity in the economic and technological worlds, which are explored in this paper, the Bitcoin and other virtual ‗currencies‘ are expected to become mainstream, leading to a need for accounting treatment. Currently, there is no guidance on how to account for transactions involving the Bitcoin. The aim of this paper is to determine a conceptual approach to accounting for the Bitcoin, making use of the theories of neoliberalism and stewardship. A qualitative analysis is applied where the relevant literature is analysed to identify key characteristics of the Bitcoin. A similar exercise is carried out to identify the accounting policy themes. The Bitcoin characteristics and the accounting policy themes form the row and column headings respectively in the correspondence table. This correspondence table was provided to 40 respondents. Their responses were analysed using the statistical program Stata and summary statistics and a visual representative map (known as a correspondence plot) of the relationship between the Bitcoin characteristics and the accounting policy themes were generated. After the initial analysis, 5 interviews were conducted with accounting experts to provide insights into the interpretation of the visual map. In conclusion, a normatively recommended accounting policy for the Bitcoin consists of recognition on control and fair value as the preferred measurement base with emphasis on the business model and intention of the entity holding the Bitcoins.