It’s complete: The Davis Tax Committee releases its final reports

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It’s complete: The Davis Tax Committee releases its final reports

• 13 April 2018
• VAT
• Louis Botha

Important:

This article is based on tax law for the tax year ending 28 February 2019.

Author: Louis Botha

On 12 April 2018, the Davis Tax Committee (DTC), issued a media statement (Media Statement) in which it announced the publication of four additional final reports and the conclusion of its work based on its Terms of Reference (ToR).

The four reports that were released on the same day are:

• The “Final report on VAT for the Minister of Finance”;
•  the “Report on the efficiency of South Africa’s corporate income tax system for the Minister of Finance”, along with a separate note on territorial taxation;
• the “Report on the public benefit organisation and the tax system for the Minister of Finance”; and
• the “Report on the feasibility of a wealth tax in South Africa for the Minister of Finance”.

According to the Media Statement, the reports are based on the mandate of the DTC as per its ToR and the publication of these reports concludes the work of the DTC, which started on 17 July 2013 when the DTC was appointed by the Minister of Finance. According to the Media Statement, the DTC held its last meeting on 27 March 2018 and also published the “Closing report on the work done by the Davis Tax Committee”, which is essentially a summary of the work done by the DTC since its establishment (Closing Report).

The Closing Report

The Closing Report notes that the operating costs (excluding premises and Secratariat costs borne by SARS) of the DTC was R12,380,000, for the five-year period that it was in existence. In terms of the Closing Report, the DTC submitted 25 reports to the Minister of Finance, which have all been published on the DTC’s website with the approval of the Minister of Finance. Using the ToR as its point of departure, the DTC established 12 sub-committees, with members and various ad hoc members, during its existence to fulfil its mandate. The Closing Report sets out the progress made by each of the various sub-committees.

Progress made by DTC sub-committees and implementation of certain recommendations

The Closing Report also sets out, among other things, the extent to which the recommendations made by various sub-committees had already been implemented. For example, the sub-committee on base erosion and profit shifting’s recommendations for s6quin of the Income Tax Act, No 58 of 1962 (Act) to be repealed and for s10(1)(o)(ii) of the Act to be reviewed, were implemented by National Treasury and SARS accordingly. Taxpayers should note for example that the amendment regarding s10(1)(o)(ii), will only come into effect on 1 March 2020. It is also interesting to note that pursuant to the work of the sub-committee on estate duty and CGT implications, the Minister of Finance accepted one of the DTC’s recommendations in the 2018 Budget Speech by announcing an increased estate duty rate of 25% that will apply to an amount in excess of a dutiable amount of R30 million in an estate. This amendment will apply from 1 March 2018, although the legislation giving effect to this amendment, still needs to be passed by Parliament.

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This article first appeared on cliffedekkerhofmeyr.com.

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