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M.Comm. / The objective of this dissertation is to examine the desirability of implementing place of supply rules as an instrument to reduce uncertainty in the South African value-added tax system, specifically with respect to cross border transactions. Value-added tax systems have been introduced in many countries, and experienced a marked increase in popularity, especially since the 1970's. Value-added tax systems often replaced sales taxes due to the many benefits a purist value-added tax system has to offer. The opening up of the world economy brings the importance of cross border transactions to the fore. Many countries recognised the fiscal uncertainty and imbalances an ever-increasing number of cross border transactions can bring to a country's value-added tax system. Place of supply rules were introduced into the value-added tax systems of many of these countries to enhance legislative certainty, to avoid double taxation and to increase equity of the overall tax system. However, when South Africa introduced value-added tax in 1991, South Africa was to a large extent still isolated from the world economy. Since the earlier 1990's, particularly since 1994 when South Africa instated its first democratically elected government, the world economy started opening up to South Africa. South Africa's value-added tax system did not and still does not have certainty on place of supply rules. Though, technically, South Africa's value-added tax system seeks to tax most, if not all, transactions with a South African connection, vendors in South Africa, tax consultants and the South African Revenue Service are experiencing difficulty (to some varying degree) on interpreting the value-added tax consequences of cross border transactions. Place of supply rules have been mooted by various role-players, the South African Revenue Service and value-added tax practitioners alike, as a possible solution to the current uncertainty in respect of cross border transactions. The relevance and desirability of introducing place of supply rules in South Africa need to be assessed.

There has been a growing interest in recent years in the Value Added Tax (hereinafter referred to as the VAT). Interest in tax reform is perennial but the factor which has generated such wide interest in the VAT has been its adoption by the member countries of the European Economic Community (EEC). The recent entry of Britain into the EEC and her adoption of the VAT have increased South African interest 1n the system because of the strong trading ties between our two countries. The Franzsen commission on taxation in South Africa gave some attention to VAT but in their own opinion not enough. This is clear from their statement: "The Commission is aware of the fact that a transition from the selective sales tax which rests on a commodity basis to a Value Added Tax, which is essentially a turnover tax, implies important administrative changes. It is felt, nevertheless, that the Value Added Tax merits further study". This thesis hopes to satisfy some of that need for further study. The aim of the thesis is not to arrive at a definite conclusion as to whether South Africa should or should not adopt the VAT, indeed, it may be impossible to answer this question completely objectively. Rather the thesis sets out to examine the implications, both theoretical and practical, of a VAT, and to present certain guide-lines as to what may constitute the best form of a VAT should it be decided to introduce this mode of taxation. There is no separate section on South Africa. Instead, the implications for South Africa have been integrated into the main body of the text. For this reason, the emphasis throughout has been on the VAT replacing the selective sales tax and, to a lesser extent, the profits tax. It is felt that the selective sales tax would be the tax most likely to be replaced by the VAT in South Africa, and that the added revenue which could be collected from the broader-based VAT could possibly be off-set against the revenue lost on a reduction in company profits tax. Such a measure would certainly be well received among business men.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2000. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The Value Added Statement does not provide any information that does not already exist in the income statement. It only arranges the information and adds a new item, salaries and wages, to highlight the value created by the company and how that value is distributed amongst stakeholders. This information would assist users in their evaluation of the economic performance of the organisation. The study set out to show the composition, calculation and the reconciliation of both Cash Value Added Statement (CVAS) and the Value Added Statement (VAS). A database has been created for the years 1990-1998 for all the companies that published the CVASNAS during that period. The differences between CVAS and VAS can be determined by: a) Non-cash items (excluding depreciation). b) Movements in non-cash components of working capital. c) Differences between an income statement and cash flow statement relative to : • Extra-ordinary items • Exceptional items • Abnormal items • Associated income • A few sundry items Individual reconciliation was performed per company per year for the period 1990 to 1998 to enable the balancing of the CVAS total (Total A) with the VAS total (Total B)- see the example on Figure 3.1 to Figure 3.3. Items in both eVAS and VAS were then expressed about the two totals (see the line, Total A) to arrive at the common size for both CVAS and VAS (Tables 1(a) and 1(bj). Descriptive statistics were performed in order to find out how much each item constitutes to the value added. Due to the large amount of data, the initial raw data was excluded from the study project and is only available in the databank. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die Toegevoegdewaardestaat verskaf geensins enige inligting wat nie reeds in die inkomstestaat verskyn nie. Die doel daarvan is slegs om inligting te rangskik en voeg nog 'n item by, nl. salarisse en lone. Die doel hiervan is om die waarde wat die maatskappy geskep het, uit te lig en ook hoe daardie bepaalde waarde onder belanghebbers verdeel word. Hierdie inligting kan gebruikers help by die evaluering van die ekonomiese prestasie van die betrokke organisasie. Die ondersoek dui die samestelling, berekening en die rekonsiliasie aan van beide die Kontant- Toegevoegdewaardestaat (KTWS) en die Toegevoegdewaardestaat (TWS). 'n Databasis is saamgestel vir die tydperk 1990 - 1998 vir alle maatskappye wat gedurende hierdie tyd KTWS/TWS gepubliseer het. Die verskille tussen KTWS en TWS word bepaal deur: a) Nie-kontant items (uitsluitend waardevermindering). b) Die bewegings in die nie-kontant komponente van bedryfskapitaal. Die verskille tussen 'n inkomstestaat en kontantvloeistaat met betrekking tot: • Buitengewone items • Besondere items • Abnormale items • Geassosieerde inkomste • Enkele diverse items Individuele rekonsiliasies is uitgevoer per maatskappy per jaar vir die tydperk 1990 - 1998 vir die balansering van die KTWS se totaal (Totaal A) met die TWS se totaal (Totaal B) - kyk na die voorbeeld in Figuur 3.1 tot Figuur 3.3. Items in beide KTWS en TWS is dan uitgedruk ten opsigte van die twee totale (kyk na die lyn, Totaal A) om by die gemeenskaplike grootte vir beide KTWS en TWS (Tabelle l(a) en l(b)) uit te kom. Beskrywende statistiek is gebruik om vas te stel hoeveel elke item bydra tot die toegevoegde waarde. Weens die geweldige hoeveelheid data/inligting, is die aanvanklike rou-data van die ondersoek uitgesluit. Dit is slegs beskikbaar in die databank.

Course: Master thesis in Business Administration and Economics, Major of Logistic, 30 hp, 4FE19E, VT17 Authors: Daniella Pavkovic & Alexandra Valhed Supervisor: Hana Hulthén Examiner: Helena Forslund Title: How to eliminate non-value added activities within eGrocery - a case study at a global grocery supplier Background: An increase in eGrocery usage has occurred due to a more stressful every day living with busy schedules and the desire to save time (Emec, Catay and Bozkaya 2015). Companies are getting involved with eGrocery primary to strengthening the consumer loyalty (Saskia, Marei and Blanquart 2016). Jaca et al., (2012) claim that well-functioning processes within eGrocery will contribute to economic development of the company which in turn can lead to higher level of consumer satisfaction, higher return on investments and a greater efficiency in processes. However, in order to enable improvements of a process and increase the efficiency, non-value added activities need to be eliminated (Librelato et al., 2013). Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to propose a framework for elimiating non-value added activities related to information sharing in the eGrocery order fulfilment process. Method: The study has a qualitative approach and, in order to answer the purpose of the study, the authors have performed a case study at a global grocery supplier. Empirical data has been collected through focus groups and interviews. Conclusion: An amount of 81 % of the activities within the order fulfilment process towards Shopr are considered to be non-value added. These were identified by a creation of a Value Stream Mapping. The non-value added activities depend primary on manual handling of the operations and insufficient information sharing within the own company as well as between the global grocery supplier and Shopr. In order to eliminate these non-value added activities a Future State Map should be created. Furthermore, focus should be on elimination of the silos within the company and integration of an integrated information system. This applies for the global grocery supplier as well as other global companies involved with eGrocery. Key words: Non-value added activities, eGrocery, Order fulfilment process, information process, silos

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M.Comm. / VAT is a tax that is based on taxing the value added on successive transactions in the supply chain, accordingly it is a tax designed for the retail or manufacturing industries. South Africa introduced VAT that is similar to that introduced across the world and later refined it. The revisions included the introduction of VAT on banking services. The introduction of VAT to banking is a first in the VAT world but still does not find a cure for the principle dilemma of taxing a bank's value added, under VAT. The study therefore established if banks are treated fairly by investigating: • The three canons of taxation, • The eight principles on which VAT rests, • And the agreement between SARS and the Council of South African Banks. The reason of the above is to propose enhancements or an alternative design that would either increase the accuracy, equity, or simplify the calculation of VAT in the banking sector. The study found that there are several options when introducing VAT to the financial services sector, namely: • zero rate it and the fiscuss looses out on the output VAT, • tax it and increase the cost of borrowing as well as face the problems of determining the value added per transaction or; • exempt it and a practice known as cascading takes place. Neither of these solutions seemed viable although the full taxation option is conceptually the only correct method oftaxation. In most countries the exemption option was taken. The result of exempting interest is that banks have to apportion their input VAT. There are various options open to a bank when calculating the ratio of input VAT to be claimed, yet legislation has only made mention of two. To alleviate this situation the VAT authorities and the Council of South African Banks have agreed upon a methodology to calculate the ratio of input VAT to be reclaimed. This agreement is not compulsory and only applies to areas where the bank does not have an alternative apportionment technique, and in some instances is also flawed in its logic. Consequently banks have the option to apportion input VAT on what they perceive to be a fair basis. The indecision and inequities described above does not result an accurate VAT. The conclusion was that the design is urtiust and the practical calculation, when applied, does not the deliver the correct amount of tax payable. The study introduced a different form of VAT, named the Business Transfer Tax. This tax is an additive form of VAT, based on accounts that relate to interest and trading income. Interest income and trading income would be zero rated under the current VAT, and therefore entitle the bank to claim input tax incurred on expenditure. This would overcome all of the issues not resolved previously.

M.Comm. / The South African investment management sector is considered well-developed with local fund managers managing approximately ZAR2.1 trillion in assets as at the end of June 2009. These assets grew to approximately ZAR2.4 trillion as at the end of June 2010. The majority of these assets are made up of institutional funds which include retirement funds. Retirement-fund investment savings have a profound impact on the country’s economic welfare not only because it provides income to a large number of aged people in South Africa, but also because it contributes to the country’s overall economic wellbeing. Therefore, one of the biggest challenges within the retirement fund industry is to ensure that retirement-fund savings are invested in an optimal way.

In recent years there has been great concern over what many are calling the “tuition bubble� in American higher education. Baumol and Bowen, in 1966, observed that personally delivered services, like a professor teaching in a university, are difficult to scale, which causes a continuing and compounded rise in real cost. Additionally, universities, in competing for students, tend to invest in expensive assets. The resulting cost of the education and the amount of student debt threatens to rise beyond the intrinsic economic value of a US college degree, especially in the face of equivalent substitutes. The overall objective of this research is not only to analyze but also to design, or re-design, some of the essential aspects of engineering education systems. A new design is proposed using principles from manufacturing, industrial engineering and axiomatic design. The proposed system is able to operate at lower costs while producing high-caliber engineers. The approach presented relies on the decomposition of the functional elements of engineering education as well as defining a quantum of learning as an inventory unit. Methods used include a value-added analysis, and value stream mapping, computer simulation and financial analysis. The results show that the net present value (NPV) for the student increases over the interval from [t start to t graduation] as the time to employment post gradation decreases for a given discount rate. This is due to receiving employment income sooner during the cash flow. Engineering schools might benefit economically from reduced costs and higher tuition revenue resulting from greater system capacity.