A research report to be submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Commerce (Taxation) 31 March 2016 / The aim of the report is to determine whether the current Value-Added Tax (‘VAT’) treatment relating to the exemption applied on educational services should be retained and to ascertain whether the policy considerations which applied when VAT was introduced are still relevant, or whether changed circumstances would justify the introduction of a different treatment or concessions in relation to these services. The most critical and significant challenge being faced by VAT vendors and universities in particular is compliance with a vast array of amendments to the VAT Legislation, Binding Rulings, Guides and Interpretation Notes issued by the South African Revenue Service (‘SARS’). Noncompliance for whatever reason may result in irregular expenditure and significant penalties and interest imposed for non-compliance, especially in light of the additional penalties being imposed in terms of the Tax Administration Act which was promulgated in October 2012. VAT therefore has a direct impact on the financial affairs and cash flow of VAT registered entities. Furthermore, government funding in respect of tertiary institutions has been on the decline in recent years while the costs of running a tertiary institution have continued to be on the rise. This development has necessitated a change of approach in how tertiary institutions manage their operations. Consequently, there developed a strong need for tertiary institutions to find alternative ways of raising extra funds to make up for the shortfall caused by the decline in funding from government. The provision of short courses, in addition to the traditional full semester diploma and degree courses provided by the institutions, was identified as an opportunity to deliver a certain varied level of educational services to an existing suitable market. This opportunity presented attractive prospects as an alternative source of funding for the institutions in the wake of depleting government funding. In this regard, many of the institutions formed a number of vehicles in order to offer the short courses to the market. The rationale behind such approaches is in order to distinguish the traditional education services (diploma and degree courses) from the non-traditional educational services (short courses). / MT2017

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Commerce (specialising in Taxation). Johannesburg, 25 March 2015 / The research reviews the legislation pertaining to the understatement penalty provisions of the Tax Administration Act 28 of 2011. The problems associated with the levying of understatement penalties in the previous legislation are determined. A detailed evaluation is made of the understatement penalty provisions, with an emphasis on the determinants for the ‘behaviour’ and ‘case’ types, and the penalty percentages derived therefrom. The fiscus’s stated goals and intentions in respect of the understatement penalties are identified and reviewed to determine if they are aligned with those considered to be international best practice. The requirements of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa of 1996 are reviewed with respect to the understatement penalties. A comparative analysis of South Africa’s understatement penalties and those of tax authorities identified as having similar tax administration regimes is presented. The research suggests that while a more systematic and uniform approach, to understatement penalties, has been established under the new legislation, the subjective nature of the ‘behaviour’ and ‘case’ determinants applied is likely to result in disputes between the South African Revenue Service (SARS) and the taxpayer. The research indicates that while the categories and nature of understatement penalties levied are broadly aligned with those of comparable countries’ regimes, the penalty percentages applied in South Africa, are relatively high. Key words and terms: understatement penalties, international best practice, goals, uniform, systematic, ‘behaviour’, ‘case’, subjective, similar tax administration regimes, penalty percentages. / MT2016

This dissertation consists of three research articles in political economy and public finance. The first chapter provides evidence on the effect of electoral institutions on the performance of public officials. Using panel data on state supreme courts between 1947 and 1994, we measure the effects of changes in judicial electoral processes on judge work quality -- as measured by citations by later judges. Judges selected by non-partisan elections write higher-quality opinions than judges selected by partisan elections. Judges selected by technocratic merit commissions write higher-quality opinions than either partisan-elected judges or non-partisan-elected judges. Election-year politics reduces judicial performance in both partisan and non-partisan election systems. Giving stronger tenure to non-partisan-selected judges improves performance, while giving stronger tenure to partisan-selected judges has no effect. These results are consistent with the view that technocratic merit commissions have better information about the quality of candidates than voters, and that political bias can reduce the quality of elected officials. The second chapter contributes to recent work in political economy and public finance that focuses on how details of the tax code, rather than tax rates, are used to implement redistributive fiscal policies. I use tools from natural language processing to construct a high-dimensional representation of tax code changes from the text of 1.6 million statutes enacted by state legislatures since 1963. A data-driven approach is taken to recover the effective tax code – the set of legal phrases in tax law that have the largest impact on revenues, holding major tax rates constant. Exogenous variation in tax legislation from judicial districts is used to capture revenue impacts that are solely due to changes in the tax code language, with the resulting phrases providing a robust out-of-sample predictor of tax collections. I then test whether political parties differ in patterns of effective tax code changes when they control state government. Relative to Republicans, Democrats use revenue-increasing language for income taxes but use revenue-decreasing language for sales taxes – consistent with a more redistributive fiscal policy – despite making no changes on average to statutory tax rates. These results are consistent with the view that due to their relative salience, changing tax rates is politically more difficult than changing the tax code. The third chapter reports evidence on the potential benefits to local labor markets of increasing property taxes as a source of local government revenue. The data come from three states (308 tax districts, 16 years) where tax districts reassess properties on a state-mandated staggered cycle, resulting in exogenous variation in assessments and accompanying taxes. I find that an increase in taxes due to random assessment causes economic expansion, with an increase in local population and the number of local business establishments. These effects appear to be driven by increases in government revenues and expenditures, rather than by changes in borrowing behavior. These results suggests that property taxes are too low in this sample of states.

Unrelated business enterprises have been an appropriate way for nonprofit organizations to generate income since the first income tax was enacted into law. The Internal Revenue Act of 1950 clarified this opportunity and enacted the Unrelated Business Income Tax to ensure that fair competition existed between nonprofits and for profit organizations. Nonprofit organizations conducting unrelated business enterprises are faced with a dilemma: it is legal for them to conduct such enterprises but if they do so they face potential litigation from for profit business for unfair competition and/or potential loss of tax-exempt status for operating outside of their exempt function. This dissertation traces the history and theory of tax-exempt status, the history of unrelated business enterprises, and how several states, including Oregon, have addressed the issue. It then explains two major pieces of litigation in Oregon in the 1980's, Southern Oregon State College and YMCA of Columbia-Willamette, then discusses the history of the media attention and legislative/bureaucratic action in the same period. Current litigation and media attention is then discussed. The paper then discusses two theoretical frameworks, Agenda Building and Advocacy Coalition, as a means to analyze the data. Following is a discussion of how the issues of unrelated business enterprises and unfair business competition can be handled by nonprofits and the changing criteria for tax-exempt status in Oregon. The dissertation concludes with the changing criteria for tax-exempt status in Oregon and fundamental philosophical and political issues yet to be decided. Included are recommendations such as a periodic review of tax-exempt status of nonprofits, the need for nonprofits to continually review their mission and exempt purpose, the need for nonprofits to maintain their relationships with the community they serve, and how nonprofits need to develop a self-governing program before government develops one for them.

There are two main principles under which jurisdictions tax income – source and residence. The point of these two principles is to establish a ‘nexus’ or link between a taxable transaction, operation or activity and a taxing state. It is this nexus which is used to justify the imposition of taxation by the jurisdiction on a particular taxpayer. Where a taxpayer is a ‘resident’ of a jurisdiction, then that person often becomes liable to pay tax on income derived from all sources. Where a taxpayer is a ‘nonresident’ of a jurisdiction, then that person often becomes liable to pay tax on income derived from sources within a particular, relevant jurisdiction. The concept of source of income is fundamentally important to both Australia and Hong Kong. Australia adopts a worldwide tax system that taxes its residents on Australian and foreign income and non-residents on Australian income, whilst Hong Kong adopts a territorial tax system that forgoes taxing foreign income irrespective of who has derived it. The fundamental basis for taxation under a territorial tax system is the source of income; while the fundamental basis for taxation under a worldwide tax system is the concept of residence. In both jurisdictions, the decisions of the courts on the meaning of source have been crucial in defining the concept of ‘source of income’ for tax purposes. The foundations of source-based taxation are less stable today. There is no universal set of source rules that can readily be applied to every circumstance to determine the source or locality of profits. The growth in international trade, supported by the development of electronic commerce, has substantially increased source-related revenue risks. Entities are increasingly able to structure their finances and conduct their affairs without being constrained by geography or national boundaries. Anticipated profits may be shifted to a related party and from one jurisdiction to another to arrive at a reduced overall tax burden. It is becoming increasingly difficult to determine from what and where income originates. The thesis examines the nature of the current source rules in Australia and Hong Kong and analyses the fundamental adequacy of the source principle generally when confronted, especially, with the challenge of rapidly growing Internet-based commercial activities. Australia and Hong Kong have been chosen for comparative study for the following reasons: the two jurisdictions are good examples of small-medium advanced economies; they are similar in the sense that they are, primarily, knowledge capital-importing jurisdictions; their approaches to ‘source’ differ markedly; and these approaches tend towards each end of the ‘source spectrum’. The thesis identifies certain principal research questions. The basic responses to these questions are: The concept of source of income is, essentially, less clear today in the domestic tax law of Australia and Hong Kong than before. Determining the source of income in Australia and Hong Kong can be a very complex issue. The difficulty related to making such determinations is growing. Searching for the real source of income has become still more problematic with the increase in globalisation and the rapid growth of Internet-based commerce. The traditional concept of source of income has ‘lost traction’ as a fundamental basis for effectively imposing income taxation, especially, in today’s globalised economy. Existing source rules do not deal adequately with certain ‘revenue-leakage’ issues confronting us today and, even more, the likely issues of tomorrow. We need to reconsider how we can better address these issues. The thesis establishes that this is so for Australia and Hong Kong. It also reasons that this proposition generally holds true for most developed tax jurisdictions. The thesis concludes with a detailed review of three of the most prominent optional approaches for addressing the source challenge: (A) a move to a new refundable withholding-tax-based method of taxing cross-border electronic commerce; (B) a shift to far greater reliance on the use of the residence principle of taxation; and (C) a shift to notably greater reliance on (indirect) consumption taxation. Option C, it is argued, offers the best prospects for dealing in the least bad way with the identified issues.

ABSTRACT Tax revenue is the major source from which government¡¦s budget revenue and is very important to sustain the need of government¡¦s public expenditure. The increasing expenditure caused by satisfying the citizen¡¦s desire of sufficient and better local government¡¦s services on education, culture, transportation, social welfare, environmental control, public health, police, and fire protection etc., as well as the shortage of tax income caused by economic depression and the tax deduction policy of the central government had seriously deteriorated the budget deficit of the local government. In 2002, our government announced to put into practice the Local Taxation Law that empowers the local government with autonomous right to levy the local taxes. Under the current situation of economic depression, how to create new sources of tax revenue to improve the budget deficit demands an immediate attention of the local government of Kaohsiung County. This study first investigates the fundamental theory of local tax, our local tax system, and local tax system of other countries to obtain the principles and feasible taxing items of imposing local tax. Secondly, this study uses secondary data to analyze the financial situation of Kaohsiung County and to research on the reasons of the financial problems and difficulty to understand the justification of tax hike. Thirdly, an in-depth interview to the head and deputy of finance department and county councilor was conducted to collect data. Through the literature study, secondary data analysis, and interview results to construct the questionnaire structure. Lastly, we conducted a research in Delphi Technique by sending questionnaire to Kaohsiung County councilor, tax personnel, finance personnel, and accounting personnel to study the perception and attitude of the interviewee towards to imposing new tax, appropriate new tax items, timing for imposing new tax, the problems we are facing and the strategy of resolving the problems. Throughout the activities mentioned above, this study consolidates and summarizes some conclusions as follows: 1. Our country has fewer local tax items and has room to expand compared to foreign countries. Besides, it has been years Kaohsiung County has had budget deficit. All tax income is not even enough to pay for personnel expenses. Having new tax revenue is necessary and reasonable. 2. After the passage of Local Taxation law, local tax is split into two categories. One is nation-wide local tax and the other is initiated by the local government. Expanding tax sources can be done in two ways at the same time. For one, nation -wide local tax shall meet the principles of sufficiency and stability of taxation. Specifically, an overall review on the current local tax system should be conducted. That includes the revoke of unreasonable tax reduction and increase of publicly announced land prices. By doing so, we can meet the finance demands from local governments. For two, local government can create new taxes that meet the principle of equity, neutrality, and benefit-receive. Specifically, local government can impose taxes with designated purposes of use, establishing the link between people¡¦s interests and burdens and meeting the special demand of local government finance. Combining these two ways shall solve the problem of insufficient tax. 3. The interviewees are highly recognized the implication of fiscal autonomy to the local government and are positively support the local governments to raise their financial resources via a systematic and reasonable taxation on new items of local tax. 4. The legislative body is not totally against the tax add and it possibly be approved as long as the local governments still can not resolve the budget deficit problem via it¡¦s efforts on minimizing the expenditure. 5. New taxations on certain residents or enterprises within a county might be considered as long as these earmarked tax revenue is used for designate purposes. New taxes that are suitable for Kaohsiung County to impose are Quarry Tax, Pollution Tax, and Peddler License Tax, in that order. 6. Local government should take three important actions to increase the willingness of the citizen to pay taxes and reduce the impact of tax add. First is to explain in public the benefits and purposes of the tax add and disclose the usage details of the new tax revenue. Second is to preclude from squandering tax revenue. Third is to increase the qualities of public services and facilities. 7. Imposing new taxes can help to achieve the objectives of increasing income sources and hence improving finance. It also helps to establish the link between public expenses and people¡¦s tax burden. That link will keep people from having the thoughts of ¡§ free of charge¡¨ and wasting public resources. However, Facing with the problem that elected officials have no intentions to push tax increase, it is necessary to establish elected chief¡¦s sense of responsibility for finance. The central government should take the efforts the local government makes to taxation, the financial deficit, and the debt into the rating of the competitiveness of all local governments. The rating results should be open to the public to encourage the local government to aggressively find new tax sources.

This thesis examines the transfer pricing issue within the perspective of setting up a cost contribution arrangement for the international management of intangible property. / To this end, the first part presents the general rules governing the transfer pricing area in Australia, Canada, France, and the United States. The provisions of these countries will serve as a guiding line of this study. The first part presents, as well, the OECD Transfer Pricing Principles. / The second part examines the structural alternatives of the CCA tax vehicle. / The third part addresses the CCA concept itself. / The fourth part deals with the operational functioning of a CCA. The new challenges and the multiple issues raised by this new tax structure are addressed as well as the tax planning perspectives opening up through transfer pricing. / Finally, the fifth part questions the new dynamics of the conflicts between tax administrations generated by the CCA vehicle.

The aim of this technical report is to provide a detailed and critical review of the suitability of the en commandite partnership for tax structuring both generally and specifically. The report takes cognisance of the requirements that a financial institution might consider in its determination of the utility of the en commandite partnership as a tax structuring tool in a structured or corporate finance environment. The report begins with an overview of the primarily legal requirements for the creation of a valid partnership. It then considers specifically whether the en commandite partnership is able to take the place of the 'Lessor Trust Arrangement' and researches specific issues germane to the enquiry. Specific legislation dealing with en commandite partnerships is then researched and includes a commentary on the provisions of s 24H and s 8(5)(a) of the Income Tax Act. Practical examples of the use of the en commandite partnership are then considered which challenges the concept of traditional loan finance and suggests the capital contribution as a tax efficient alternative. A consideration of the possibility of a challenge under the anti-avoidance provisions of the Income Tax Act concludes the report. / Thesis (LL.M.)-University of Natal, 1999.

No description available.

No abstract available. / Thesis (LL.M.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1999.