3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item Trade, climate change and renewable energy: regulatory conflict or convergence?(2018) Thomaides, Anastasia ChrisaThe research report seeks to explore the link between trade and the environment, with a particular focus on the renewable energy sector. The aim is to determine the tensions and unification amongst the regulatory tools of the World Trade Organisation and Climate Change Regimes will be discussed, in a manner that shows how trade can assist in mitigating or adapting to the effects of climate change. As such the intention of the report is to answer the question of how do we use trade to disseminate energy technology as set out in the Sustainable Development Goals (“SDGs”) in order to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all, in both an international and South African context. The result, however, lead the need for more inclusive global regime that is less fragmented, over and above the need for improvement for domestic laws as well as infrastructure to generate electricity in order to provide for much more enabling approach to the investment of renewable energy.Item The impact of the tax administration act and aspects of the Constitution of South Africa on SARS' ability to collect taxes(2016-01-29) Pillay, PrenushaAs the framework for the collection of revenue by SARS evolves to ensure taxpayer compliance, the protection of taxpayers’ fundamental rights should not be overlooked. This research will evaluate certain provisions of the recently enacted Tax Administration Act (the Act) against the background of the taxpayers’ rights to privacy, property and just administrative action. These rights are contained in the Constitution of South Africa, the supreme law of the land. The analysis suggests that the conduct of SARS in exercising its statutory powers as well as some of the provisions of the Act may conflict with taxpayers’ constitutional rights and that the remedies available in such situations are limited or do not offer taxpayers an effective mechanism to obtain remedial action. Key words: Bill of Rights, Constitution, Constitution of South Africa, constitutional right, just administrative action, legislation, Ombud, PAJA, Promotion of Administrative Justice Act, privacy, property, remedies, SARS, tax, tax administration, Tax Administration Act, Tax Ombud, taxation, taxpayer, taxpayer compliance.Item The introduction of REITs to the South African property market: Opportunities for fund managers(2014-07-29) Naidoo, HannalishaOn 1 May 2013, real estate investment trusts (REITs), a listed property product, had legislation about it introduced in the South African property market. Prior to the introduction of this REIT legislation, property unit trusts (PUTs) and property loan stocks (PLSs) were the two predominant types of listed property investment products in South Africa. However, both the PUT and PLS are subject to uneven regulation and taxation, and they lack flexibility. The REIT legislation was introduced to eliminate some of the problems of the PUTs and PLSs, by creating: a more unified tax treatment of listed property companies, more stringent regulatory requirements and uplifting the South African property market to a level that is internationally competitive. It is therefore considered valuable to empirically investigate whether or not the introduction of the REIT framework into the listed South African property market will be advantageous to investors, and whether or not it would lead to improvement in the efficiency, regulation and taxation of the listed property market. A questionnaire was used to collect primary data to analyze the research problem. The questionnaire used a Likert scale format that consisted of 20 questions. There were a total of 58 useable respondents, each of who fell into 1 of 5 occupational categories. The questions were divided into 4 unifying themes and the findings were analyzed according to these themes. From the analysis of the responses it was found that the REIT legislation is perceived as a welcomed and suitable introduction to the South African listed property market. We could also infer that REITs allow for a more favorable tax dispensation, improved regulation, increased international competitiveness and enhanced liquidity within the listed property market. Overall, there is a perception that investors, especially fund managers, would find it potentially advantageous to include South African REITs or a higher proportion of such REITs in their investment portfolios.