I have written about this before but the issue has come to the fore again when I recently applied for a tax clearance certificate for offshore investing on behalf of a client. On the face of it, exchange control legislation has all but fallen away with the announcement by National Treasury that individual investors can take R4million offshore each year. But it seems that someone at Treasury forgot to tell SARS that it is ok for people to...

The recent changes to Regulation 28 rules around retirement funds has caused a bit of “excitement” in the asset management industry and I have seen at least 2 articles making a case that the stricter enforcement of the Reg 28 rules make Retirement Annuities  unattractive investments, especially for younger investors (see the article by Jan Mouton of PSG Asset Management –...

I remember, as a kid, reading about Doctor Dolittle and the fantastic “pushmi-pullyu” a gazelle-unicorn cross with two heads (one of each) at opposite ends of its body. Whenever it tried to move, both heads went in opposite directions and as a result it went nowhere. I had to apply for a tax clearance for foreign investment for a client of mine and could not help but think how the current tax clearance process reminded me of the...

Just a reminder that next week Thursday is yet another provisional tax deadline…anyone needing to make a 3rd provisional tax payment must do it before then. SARS are no longer sending out forms or reminders so the onus is now fully on tax-payers. It also appears that the form is no longer a requirement and the easiest way to do the 3rd payment is on efiling under the “additonal payments” link…you can even get SARS to...

Dear Sir Part of the service offering of our financial planning business involves assisting people with their tax returns (we submit over 140 each year as well as 80 provisional tax returns). Tax is not really something that we enjoy doing nor is it a profitable aspect of our business. However, it is an essential part of the service offering as more and more people become intimidated by or disillusioned with their dealings with SARS. Do you...

I know I am banging on a bit about SARS and tax at the moment but it is probably because for me it is the period when we have the most interaction with SARS – not only are we in the throes of the 2010 filing season but the 2011 first provisional tax deadline is also around the corner. In this context I recently had the misfortune of having to go into the SARS Cape Town branch to take in an application to register a new tax payer for...