Economy Shrinks By 0.7% The South African economy slipped into recession during thesecond quarter of 2018, shrinking by 0,7% quarter-on-quarter. This followed a revised 2,6% contraction in the first quarter of 2018. The widely recognised indicator of recession is two (or more) consecutive quarters of negative growth. South Africa experienced its last recession during the [...]
Land Rights – An International Perspective: The land question is foremost on all South African minds, with debate raging across all spectrums. To put the land issue in perspective the following extract from the International Growth Centre policy brief on unlocking land rights for urban development highlights that the land issue is not unique to [...]
CIPC Launches Digital Financial Reporting Solution The ease of doing business and particularly reducing the regulatory burden for businesses received a boost with the launch of Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC’s) Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), a Digital Financial Reporting Solution at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) in Sandton. The system will allow companies [...]
Estate Plan Review While it makes sense to review one’s estate plan on annual basis there are some key events which should ring a bell for an estate planner to revise their estate plan immediately. The following are some key events: Divorce The Wills Act states that except where expressly otherwise provided, a bequest to [...]
The Davis Tax Committee Concludes Its Work The Davis Tax Committee (DTC) has announced the conclusion of its work and the publication of the following four final reports: VAT (replaces the first VAT report); Corporate income tax (CIT); Public benefit organisations (PBO’s); Wealth tax. The reports are based on the mandate of the DTC as per its Terms [...]
SARS's Stance on The Tax Treatment of Cryptocurrencies Increased attentiveness and speculation regarding the future of cryptocurrencies has prompted calls for the South African Revenue Service (SARS) to provide direction as to how cryptocurrencies should be treated for tax purposes. However, there is an existing tax framework that can guide SARS and affected taxpayers on [...]
Budget Speech Review - Focus on Value Added Tax While there were a number of changes announced in the recent budget speech, none were as significant as the increase in the standard rate of VAT from 14 to 15%. While largely anticipated the practical implications need to be reviewed in order to ensure compliance from [...]
Budget Preview Minister Gigaba will present his first full budget speech on the 21st February 2018. This has to be one of the most important budget speeches announced post-democracy - one that could make or break our fragile economy. The scale of funding the budget deficit alone is daunting, set against a backdrop rebuilding investor [...]
Davis Tax Committee (DTC) Publishes Final Reports The Davis Tax Committee was established in 2013 to review what role the tax system can play in addressing the following key issues amongst others: Economic growth Unemployment, poverty and inequality Small business growth Corporate tax base erosion and profit shifting In this context the following six final [...]
"REVIEW: MEDIUM TERM BUDGET POLICY SPEECH" Overview There was not much good news, with revenue shortfalls projected in 2017/18 to be R50 billion, R69 billion in 2018/19 and R89 billion in 2019/20. So, a collective shortfall over the next three years of over R200 billion, with limited detail on how to fund it. There is [...]
