New Weekly Newsletter for Members

Welcome to the new TaxTime newsletter!

We are proud to launch the new weekly newsletter for members of the South African Institute of Tax Practitioners. As the pre-eminent tax professional body in South Africa our slogan is Integrity - Education - Excellence. We trust that this new addition to our member service offerings will be of invaluable assistance to you.

The objective of TaxTime is to keep you abreast of the latest developments in tax, at SARS and within the Institute itself.

Members are invited to submit their comments and suggestions to taxtime@thesait.org.za.

Yours truly,
Stiaan Klue
Chief Executive

South African tax revenue may be significantly down on the budgeted R659bn for 2009/10 due to the economic downturn, the National Treasury said.

On 1 June, National Treasury released for public comment a draft of the Taxation Laws Amendment Bill of 2009, which gives effect to the tax proposals announced in the 2009 Budget and outlined in the 2009 Budget Review.

In its recent Total Tax Contribution study of the Global Mining Industry, PricewaterhouseCoopers found that on average, mining companies paid a higher percentage than the average percentage for taxes borne and collected as shown by other cross-industry studies.

The dispute was the validity of a settlement agreement between King and SARS. King alleged that SARS had entered into a written settlement agreement with him.

Mr Pestana (A) was a client of Nedbank Carletonville with the namesake, Mr Pestana (B) who conducted a similar account at the same branch.

The National Technical Committee, chaired by Professor Jackie Arendse, recently made the following submissions to SARS...

SARS requested during the recent National Stakeholders Meeting that SAIT, SAICA and SAIPA investigate an alternative model for regulating the tax profession in South Africa.

The Education and Training department developed a workshop on working papers for tax practitioners.

SARS have embarked on an approach of getting to improved the understanding of traders and their needs so as to inform the design of differentiated service channels and simplifications into the future.

The South African Revenue Service (Sars) has introduced a range of measures to streamline the importation of goods helping to boost trade and reduce the administrative burden on importers.

The OECD launched a new survey into the VAT "lost" by businesses due to the difficulties of recovering tax incurred in countries other than their own.

On 12 June 2009 SARS Customs seized Ephedrine with a street value of R3, 6 million at OR Tambo International.

Minister Pravin Gordhan announced the change in the official interest rate for the purposes of paragraph (a) of the definition of "Official rate of interest".

On 10 June 2009, the Commissioner, Michael D'Ascenzo, gave an address entitled "A new deal for small business" to the Council of Small Business of Australia (COSBOA) National Small Business Summit, held in Melbourne, Victoria.

During the Annual Tax Conference of the Irish Taxation Institute Lorraine Griffin, a Tax Partner at Deloitte Ireland, delivered a paper on "International Tax and Foreign Direct Investment Update".