Additional tax on gambling winnings was announced by the Minister of Finance, Mr. Pravin Gordhan in the 2010 National Budget Speech. This additional tax was proposed to discourage excessive gambling in South Africa. In 2011, it was proposed that all winnings above R25 000 will be subject to a final 15 per cent withholding tax. Gambling plays a significant role in the South African economy and contributes to job creation, infrastructure investment and overall economic growth. The Government faced negative comments from the gambling industry where the administrative challenges of implementing a withholding tax were emphasised. Challenges such as the difficulty in implementing, controlling and administering the proposed tax were mentioned. The objective of the proposal was questioned because excessive gambling declined in South Africa during the last few years. This led to the Government changing their proposed method in 2012 from a withholding tax at 15 per cent to a national gambling tax, based on gross gambling revenue, on a uniform provincial gambling tax base, which constitutes an additional 1% national levy. This raised two main problem statements. The first is which role of government, regulator versus stakeholder, is taking precedence through the implementation of the proposals to levy additional taxes on gambling in South Africa? And the second, is this role (identified above) the correct role that government should play that best supports government‟s objective of curbing excessive gambling in South Africa and does it justify the need for an additional tax to be levied on South African gambling? The two proposed methods were scrutinised to identify the ultimate role of the government. The fact that only the winnings will be subject to a withholding tax system did not contribute to a regulator role to decrease excessive gambling and thereby minimising negative externalities. Not all gamblers will be directly affected by this type of tax. The provincial tax base taxes all gambling activities, as all gamblers participating in gambling will be subject to the additional levy. The problem here is that the gambler will not be directly taxed and will then not be directly influenced to have any effect on their gambling behaviour. The government also recognised that they want to decrease the negative externalities that are associated with excessive gambling. It would seem that the main objective should rather be to address the negative externalities rather than the excessive gambling. It is debatable whether an additional tax levied in any form other than a sin tax would achieve this goal and give the role of regulator precedence. The role as stakeholder took precedence when the government decided to move to a provincial tax base. Research indicated that the main motivational factor behind the election was purely driven on how government would be successful in implementing an additional tax in the most administratively efficient and cost effective manner, while still benefiting from it through the collection of additional state revenue. / MCom (South African and International Taxation), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

The thesis analyses and assesses tax systems in the Czech Republic, Austria, Estonia, Latvia and Ukraine. Each structural components of corporate income tax and also taxation of profit shares paid to partners are compared. The comparison of taxation concepts are drawed mainly from the national perspective but the cross-border aspects are described as well. Based on all findings the conclusions about advantages and disadvantages of the tax systems are set.

This thesis provides a cross-country analysis of potential tax revenue losses due to the ways different countries tax over-border dividend and interest incomes of multinational enterprise. Withholding taxation of outgoing dividends and interest payments is regulated by domestic tax rules as well as bilateral double tax treaties. The signing of such a treaty might substantially reduce the tax rate levied by the source country on the outgoing passive income and thus decrease its tax revenue. We create a large panel dataset and estimate withholding tax rate elasticities of dividend and interest outflows for a large set of countries around the world. Subsequently, we use these elasticities to estimate potential tax revenue losses due to outgoing dividend and interest payments for the source countries in our dataset. The results show highly elastic dividend outflows, 2.3% - 2.58% decrease related to 1% increase in the applicable withholding tax. We also find substantial tax revenue losses due to dividend outflows for a number of source countries, the largest for Canada (1.35 - 3.19 billion USD) and the United States (2.27 - 2.94 billion USD). The investor country behind the largest part of potential losses shows up to be the Netherlands. JEL Classification F21, F23, H25, H26 Keywords double tax treaty;...

SETTLEMENT SHARE AND DETERMINATION OF ITS AMOUNT ABSTRACT The subject of my thesis is to analyse the legal regulation governing the settlement share and determination of its amount. The aim is to provide comprehensive picture of the issue of the settlement share both in terms of the commercial law, as well as in terms of the tax and accounting law. With regard to the recent and significant changes in private law, and thus in the area of settlement share, there is devoted ample space in the thesis to comparison of the current and former legal framework including application of the available judicature. The change of the particular law brought a lot of new questions and disputed interpretations, which are subsequently identified and analysed. My thesis consists of introduction, seven chapters and conclusion. Chapters one to four represent a general part in relation to the settlement share. The first chapter gives the definition of a settlement share from both the legal and economical perspective. It includes also consideration about possible treatment with the settlement share. The second chapter deals with the termination of the participation of a partner, which leads to the constitution of the settlement share. Chapter three analyses the various options for determining the value of the settlement share...

Short term assignments to other countries are increasing and it is important to take note of the associated potential tax compliance requirements. South Africa is part of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) whose main objective is to advance the development and economic growth of the member countries through regional integration. It is difficult for persons with limited or no international tax background to identify potential taxes when going on short term assignments to other SADC countries as very little has been published with regard to the procedure to follow. The procedure to follow and the main tax concepts (corporate tax, personal tax, VAT and withholding tax) have not been published in a user friendly, holistic format to enable such persons to identify potential tax implications. In this research a conceptual tax-compliance framework was created and tested to enable persons to follow the procedure to identify potential taxes that could be triggered when going on short term assignments. It also enables them to have an understanding of the concepts of the main tax principles applicable in SADC countries that have double tax agreements in place with South Africa. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / lmchunu2014 / Taxation / unrestricted

The aim of this paper is to investigate if it is compatible with the free movement of capital (Article 63 TFEU) to levy a withholding tax on Swedish-sourced dividends paid to non-EU investment funds with legal personality (in the paper referred to as investment companies). This question is of relevance since several Swedish intermediaries do not pay any income tax on dividends, either due to a formal tax exemption or to de facto practice. As such, it is clear from CJEU case law that non-EU investment companies should also be exempt from withholding tax on dividends, provided that they are in an objectively comparable situation with any of these Swedish entities and that no justification ground is applicable.   The conclusion of the thesis is that there are indications of that the current Swedish lower court practice, which is to deny comparability between non-EU investment companies and Swedish tax-exempt investment funds with reference to that the foreign entities have a different legal form, is contrary to EU law. Alternatively, it is possible to find discriminatory treatment when comparing the dividend tax treatment of a non-EU investment company with the dividend tax treatment of a Swedish fiscal investment enterprise (investmentföretag). For this reason, it is welcome that leave to appeal was recently granted by the Supreme Administrative Court of Sweden in one of the lower court cases dealing with this issue.

As the number of non-resident sports persons competing in South Africa increases so does the need to tax them more effectively. It was for this reason that the South African legislature decided to insert Part IlIA into the Income Tax Act which regulates the taxation of non-resident sports persons in South Africa. The new tax on foreign sports persons, which came into effect during August 2006, is a withholding tax placing the onus upon the organizer of the event to withhold the tax portion of the payment to the non-resident sportsperson and pay it over to the revenue services. The rate of taxation has been set at 15 percent on all amounts received by or accruing to a foreign sportsperson. The question which the research addressed is whether this new tax will prove to be an effective tax, both from the point of view of its equity and the administration of the tax. In order to determine the impact of the new tax, it was compared to similar taxes implemented in the United Kingdom and Australia and also to other withholding taxes levied in South Africa. The new tax was also measured against a theoretical model for effectiveness, compared to the pre-August 2006 situation and to the taxation of resident sportsmen and women, using hypothetical examples. The major shortcomings of the new withholding tax are the uncertainty with regard to the intention of the legislature on matters such as the taxation of capital income versus revenue income, the question whether payments to support staff are included in the ambit of the new tax, the taxation of the award of assets in lieu of cash payments and the definition of a resident. A further area of concern is that the rate of taxation of 15 percent appears to be too low and creates horizontal inequity between the taxation of resident and non-resident sports persons. The new tax on non-resident sports persons may have its shortcomings but, depending upon the administrative and support structures put in place to deal with it, will be an effective tax. The rate at which the tax is levied could result in a less tax being collected than before but, with the reduced administrative cost of tax collection, the effective/statutory ratio of the tax could well be much higher than it was. This is a new tax in South Africa and certain initial problems are inevitable and will undoubtedly be solved as the administrators gain experience and as the case law governing this tax develops. / KMBT_363

The diploma thesis deals with international taxation of theater artist’s incomes. The main aim is to create methodical instruction for income taxation of tax non-residents of The Czech Republic. After that the methodical instruction is used for calculation of the tax liability of model tax payers - theater artists. The diploma thesis also evaluates case-law which deals with international taxation and defines possible risks which eventuate from incorrect interpretation.

Taxation of permanent establishments is one of the most complicated areas within international tax law. The system of permanent establishment is based not only on the national legislations of relevant states, but also (mainly) on the international double taxation treaties. This diploma thesis analyses those issues in the taxation of permanent establishments, which are the most up-to-date or can be considered as the key questions of the whole concept and therefore can be significant for the future development of the permanent establishments. However the technically perfect system of permanent establishments should come hand in hand with the practical feasibility and overall efficiency. This assumption is nowadays challenged by several trends like the growing popularity of offshore tax heavens or the development of information technologies, which complicate the determination of (fixed) place of business through which the business of an enterprise is wholy or partly carried on. The technical analyses in this thesis are, therefore, supplemented by the objective evaluations from the perspective of valid legislation, possible approaches of the tax authorities, as well as of the enterprise considerations and also the global international taxation picture. This involves also the aspects of tax policies at the level of sovereign states, especially the Czech Republic.

After accession to the European Union, tax issues acquired and are still acquiring an entirely new character. A new legal environment is forming both in the Czech Republic and in the European Union. Until now, only indirect taxes have been harmonised, with direct taxes having remained in the domain of each member state. However, we are now feeling pressure to harmonise this area as well. Cases concerning value added tax belong to those that are now most often being resolved in front of the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. Cases regarding direct taxes are also becoming increasingly important. Will direct taxes be harmonized to the same extent as indirect taxes have? When potential investor is considering his investment into a company, he needs to match comparable figures. Definitely, one of the most important criterions is the amount of profit after taxation followed by payout of dividends. If there are different ways of taxation of corporations in various EU Member States, then there would be no possibility to compare corporations placed in various EU Member States objectively. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is, based on the research in the whole EU regarding taxation of corporations, to suggest a method how to harmonize taxation of corporations, which now prevents companies from trading in a single EU market, and also to minimize corporation’s costs of fulfilment of tax administration requirements of each Member State. This aim has been achieved through the following partial aims: .. An analysis of taxation of corporations in each of all 27 EU Member States, .. An analysis of proposals of the European Commission regarding harmonisation of taxation of companies, .. Suggestion of own method of harmonization of taxation of corporations in the EU. In conclusion, there are emphasized the contributions of this thesis to the science, to the practice and to education.