M.Comm. / Since the April 1994 elections the issue of economic empowerment and growth have had a high priority on the agenda of the Government of National Unity of South Africa. Small and medium enterprises (SME's) represent an important vehicle to address the challenges of job creation, economic growth and equity in our country. Throughout the world one finds that SME's are playing a critical role in absorbing labour, penetrating new markets and generally expanding economies in creative and innovative ways. Research indicates that there are more than 800 000 small and medium enterprises in South Africa, absorbing about a quarter of the approximately 15 million people which comprises the formal labour force. According to the White Paper on National Strategy for the Development and Promotion of Small Business in South Africa (1995:10), this does not include about 3,5 million people who are involved in some or other type of survivalist enterprise activity force. While the importance of large industrial, mining and other enterprises for the growth of the economy cannot be denied, there is ample evidence that the labour absorptive capacity of the small business sector is high, with the average capital cost per job created in this sector, usually being lower than in big businesses. In addition the small business sector's role in technical and other innovations is vital for the many challenges facing the South African economy. Notwithstanding the importance of small enterprises in the South African economy, they are still faced with a wide range of constraints and problems that are common to small enterprises. There can be no doubt that compared to big businesses in South Africa and small businesses in other countries, these problems have not been sufficiently addressed. The constraints relate, amongst others, to the legal and regulatory environment confronting SME's, the access to markets, finance, the acquisition of skills and management expertise and in some cases, the tax burden. This study will be aimed at addressing the problems that small enterprises experience with the South African Tax System. The dissertation is based on various Acts as effective during April 1997. Various factors were identified in the Interim Report of the Commission of Inquiry into certain aspects of the Tax Structure of South Africa, (Katz, November 1994:150) under the chairmanship of Prof. M.M. Katz. These factors include, amongst others, the following: Small and medium-sized enterprises have a greater dependence on the working proprietor as a source of funds, since they do not have access to public securities markets for the issue of equity or long term loan capital. The taxation of the income of the working proprietor therefore directly depletes their principal source of equity capital, requiring the entrepreneur to make greater use of short term debt finance. This in turn increases their risk exposure; Whereas savings which flow via financial institutions (for example, through pension and life insurance contributions) to the corporate sector enjoys tax relief, no equivalent relief is available to working proprietors who invest in their own businesses; There is considerable evidence that the compliance burden of taxation falls disproportionately on smaller enterprises, who do not have expertise in the completion of tax returns or in other aspects of tax compliance, and either make use of expensive professional assistance or rely on the proprietor's own efforts. The compliance burden is aggravated by frequent changes in the tax system, complicated structures and rules, and the lack of taxpayer education opportunities. The problem of the compliance burden on smaller enterprises has probably become more severe in recent years as a consequence of the introduction of Value Added Tax and the fact Jiat the present Standard Income Tax on Employees personal income tax requires more detailed personnel records than the former Final Deduction System which it replaced; The general bias in tax systems towards favouring capital investment and penalising employment through investment relief and social security contributions tends to favour large firms, which have easier access to sources of capital, and discriminates against smaller firms which tend to be more labour intensive.

This thesis includes a financial analysis of AGC Flat Glass Czech a.s. on the basis of financial reports of the period 2005 - 2009. The theoretical part describes the methods of financial analysis - absolute and ratio analysis, predictive models, economic value added. The practical part includes an analysis of macroeconomic and industry growth, the financial analysis and comparison with the industry.

The graduation thesis deals with the topic employee benefits in the Czech Republic. It focuses more closely on the most frequent ones (meal allowances, using a company car for private purposes, life and pension insurance, education of the employees, beverages and refreshment provided to the employees or gifts). Furthermore it analyses a current trend in providing employee benefits with regard to the financial crisis, it outlines a mathematical solution of the employee benefits and a view of relevant legal enactment.

The diploma thesis deals with refund of VAT to entrepreneurs from European Communities and from the third countries. The first part makes the reader familiar with the legislative conditions which are set by the EC guideline and by the Value added tax law. The process of filling in the VAT refund application and the tax administrator process of considering an application are analysed in the second chapter. The third chapter compares legislative conditions and the VAT refund processes to entrepreneurs from European Communities and from the third countries. Also there is mentioned an evaluation of the identical and the different elements.

This thesis is devoted to financial analysis and it explains all the attributes and methods. These are applied to the example of T-Mobile, Inc. The core of this analysis is the processing of official financial statements of the company. Particular emphasis is placed on the bankruptcy models. The aim is to evaluate the current economic development of the company and its current market position, including a comparison with the competition. Thesis evaluates the financial health of the company from 2005 to 2009.

The goal of this thesis is to apply methods of financial analysis at the selected company and assess that way financial situation. In the theoretical section summarizes the findings of financial analysis, its methods and procedures. The practical section assesses past and current financial state of company Povrchová důlní, s.r.o. in the years 2005 to 2009, by using selected methods of financial analysis. In conclusion of practical part is analyzed company compared with the industry in which operates, and is assessed the impact of the economic crisis on economy of company.

This thesis analyzes the different VAT measures applied to non-profit orchestras and orchestras established as business. The analysis is based on the comparison of the rules of the Czech VAT legislation for both types of orchestras and their simulation on the example of a fictional orchestra. However, the simulation is based on data from one of domestic professional non-profit orchestra. The analysis shows that the exemption of cultural services can be unfavorable for large non-profit orchestras carrying out a diverse range of activities. The consequences following the application of different VAT measures are stated in the last part of the thesis.

Kite energy systems are an emerging renewable energy technology. Unlike conventional turbines, kite energy systems extract wind power using tethered kites which can move freely in the wind or underwater in an ocean current. Due to the mobility, kite power systems can harvest power from regions with higher and steadier power density by moving in high-speed cross flow motion. An airborne kite energy system harnesses wind power at an altitude higher than the conventional wind turbines, while an undersea kite energy system extracts power close to the ocean surface. In this dissertation, the physical limitation, mathematical modeling, and control system design of the kite energy systems are studied. First, three major physical effects that are acting on the kite energy systems are investigated, including potential force, steady aero-/hydro-dynamic force and added mass effects. Furthermore, the dissipativity of the steady aero-/hydro-dynamic forces with respect to the apparent velocity is established. Based on this analysis, the power generation limit of the kite energy systems is studied. A power limit formulation is given which generalize the two-dimensional result to three-dimensional case. The different physical phenomenon is modeled in different coordinate systems, the difference of the density, viscosity between air and water are significant, and the kite energy system can operate in two distinct modes. To combine different physical effects into a single simulation framework, the equivalences of the kite model in different coordinate systems are established through kinematic analysis. Using these equivalent relations, a unified simulation model for airborne and undersea kite energy systems are derived. The control system design of kite energy systems is also investigated. The resulting equations of motion of kite energy systems are highly nonlinear. Therefore, Lyapunov methods are used to analyze the system behavior. Three different techniques are reviewed, including Lyapunov analysis for autonomous and non-autonomous systems, the ultimate boundedness and input-to-state stability and passivity methods. For the fixed tether length kite energy systems, the ultimate boundedness of the kite translation is established through the dissipativity of the steady aero-/hydro-dynamic force. For the variable tether length kite energy system, the input-to-state analysis is used to design the tether tension that guaranteed the boundedness of the kite translation. In both cases, the Lyapunov based methods are used to design kite rotational control systems which result in PD type control signals. Although this control scheme generates consecutive power cycles for kite energy systems. It is shown that the kite aero-/hydro-dynamical performance is unstable in the simulation which could result in unsteady power generation. To provide a steadier performance in kite translation and power output, the relative dynamics of the kite translation is first proposed. In this model, the kite apparent speed and attitudes, the angle of attack and side-slip angle, are used to describe the kite translation. A nonlinear control scheme is designed to regulate the angle of attack and side-slip angle using back-stepping methods by using the kite angular velocity and control inputs. However, due to the magnitude limit of the angular velocity, the residual error of the apparent attitude tracking remain large for the large desired angle of attack and side-slip angle. To achieve a better power harvesting and aero-/hydro-dynamics performance, the geometric properties of kite angle of attack and side-slip angle are studied. A geometric attitudes trajectory is constructed to track given apparent attitudes. A rotational control system is designed based on the back-stepping and sliding mode methods for the desired geometric attitude, and the high gain observer is applied to acquire the information needed for the rotational control signal. Through the geometric apparent attitudes tracking control algorithm, the angle of attack and side-slip angle act as direct control inputs to the kite translational motion. The kite translational dynamics under the geometric apparent attitude tracking is studied. These dynamics give the possibility of controlling the kite translational motion only through the rotational control scheme.

Thesis advisor: Henry I. Braun / With teachers being largely held accountable for student learning outcomes, it is of critical importance to identify effective and ineffective teachers through the development and implementation of a successful teacher evaluation system. Addressing the call to explore indicators of teacher effectiveness and enhance the traditional methods and practices of teacher evaluation, this study extends current efforts investigating different approaches to measuring teacher effectiveness through exploration of the relationship between two indicators of teacher effectiveness: the value-added estimates based on student test performance and growth, and the quality of student learning objectives (SLO) developed by teachers. It uses data from a large school district in North Carolina, comprising student achievement outcomes in mathematics and reading across five grades and three years. Different hierarchical linear models are employed to obtain teachers' VAM estimates with regression adjustments for prior years of achievement, student background characteristics, and teacher level covariate adjusted for each set of models. Weighted Least Squares (WLS) analysis, logistic regression, and point-biserial analysis are used to examine the variations in the relationships among teachers' VAM estimates, SLO quality and SLO attainment status across years and grades. The HLM results revealed fluctuations in teachers' VAM rankings obtained at different stages of the model sequence that caused the correlations with SLO quality to vary as well. The WLS results indicated that the correlations between VAM and SLO quality also varied across years and grades. Further data analysis revealed generally weak associations between SLO quality and attainment status, as well as those between teachers' VAM estimates and whether their SLOs were achieved. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement and Evaluation.

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