3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item South African trusts: eroding the tax base(2016-01-29) Jeaven, PravirAbstract The South African Revenue Service (‘SARS’) and National Treasury has in the recent past identified various areas of tax in which taxpayers have been avoiding tax by arranging their affairs in a certain way. An area which SARS and National Treasury sees as being a danger to the South African tax base is the utilisation of trusts by individuals. This was made evident in the 2013 National Budget Speech by way of a passing high-level comment on how SARS proposes to mitigate the risk that trusts pose to the South African tax base. This research evaluates whether trusts do in fact pose a valid risk to erode the tax base and whether they are as ‘deadly’ as they are made out to be. A discussion of the taxation of local trusts is included in this paper and it continues by analysing the various antiavoidance provisions contained in the Income Tax Act. In addition, this paper discusses the proposed amendments to be made to the current tax regime as well as the revised tax return format for trusts and the supposed purpose thereof. The paper concludes on the validity of the concern raised by both SARS and National Treasury in respect of trusts being used as vehicles to erode the South African tax base.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.