Testamentary trusts still have their place
How you can protect your assets from predators—including SARS Trusts have received a lot of bad press over the past few years, what with SARS taking a dim view of the use of trusts as a means of avoiding tax. A 2008 case involving a property trust, where the beneficiaries were changed in the hope […]
Share Disposals: Calculating SARS’s slice
How to work out the taxable capital gain when disposing of share investments One of the underlying principles of Capital Gains Tax (CGT) is that a capital gain is normally determined as being the difference between the proceeds on sale of an asset, less the so-called ‘base cost’. Calculating the base cost is therefore critical […]
CEASING TAX RESIDENCY: CHANGES ON THE HORIZON FOR INTEREST AND CAPITAL GAINS
Section 9H of the Income Tax Act provides that a natural person’s year of assessment is deemed to have ended on the date immediately before the day on which that person ceased to be a resident for South African tax purposes. Furthermore, that person’s subsequent tax year is deemed to commence on the day that […]
WHO QUALIFIES FOR A SPECIAL TRUST AND HOW IS IT TAXED?
Unlike “conventional trusts” that are taxed at a flat tax rate, a special trust is taxed on the same sliding scale applicable to natural persons. The Income Tax Act provides for two types of special trusts: a so-called type-A and type-B trust. In essence, a type-A trust is created for a person (or persons) having […]
USUFRUCTS AND THE TAX CONSEQUENCES THEREOF
A usufruct is a limited real right in property. The usufruct construct takes the form of a common-law personal servitude, which, as a limited real right, grants the holder (the usufructuary) the right to use someone else’s property, including the fruits. Typical examples include where someone is granted the right to use a house, or […]
AN URGE TO REPATRIATE FOREIGN DIVIDENDS
In 2001, South Africa, like many other countries, introduced capital gains tax aimed at levying capital gains tax on the gain made from the disposal of certain assets. When a South African tax resident company redomiciles abroad and changes its tax residency to another tax jurisdiction, such a company ceases to be a tax resident […]
CAPITAL GAINS TAX ON DEATH
Section 9HA of the Income Tax Act deals with deemed disposals by a deceased person. This section of the Act often causes some confusion, especially where there are heirs or legatees other than the surviving spouse. In terms of the provision, a deceased person is treated as having disposed of his or her assets at […]
VALUATION OF PREFERENCE SHARES
In income tax, the question of valuation of shares often causes a great deal of uncertainty, especially where shares are not traded on a recognised exchange. Although the Eighth Schedule to the Income Tax Act[1] in paragraph 31 gives some guidance on the market value of certain assets, the ‘catch-all’ method is the price that […]