Thesis (MAccounting)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The term beneficial owner is most commonly found in the dividend, interest and the royalty articles of tax treaties (Baker, 2007:15), yet there is still uncertainty surrounding the actual meaning of the term (Du Toit, 2010: 500). Since Dividends Tax became effective in South Africa as from 1 April 2012, it has become necessary to clarify what the term beneficial owner means to correctly apply section 64E of the Income Tax Act No 58 of 1962 (‘Act’). Section 64EA(a) of the Act determines that the Dividends Tax liability falls on the “beneficial owner of a dividend” [Emphasis added]. Section 64D of the Act does define the beneficial owner as “the person entitled to the benefit of the dividend attaching to the share”, the application of this definition to a discretionary trust may be challenging since legal ownership must be distinguished from economic ownership (PWC Synopsis, 2012:6). In the absence of guidance by the South African Revenue Service (‘SARS’), the first problem arises as to the interpretation of this term within the context of dividend income received by a discretionary trust (Louw, 2012:1). This leads to a second problem relating to the correct application of section 64G(3)(a)(i) of the Act, which makes provision for a reduced rate of dividends tax. The purpose of this study is to set parameters for determining who the beneficial owner of dividend income within the context of a discretionary trust is, where the dividend is paid in respect of shares held in a resident company, and to the extent that the dividend does not consist of a distribution of an asset in specie. The instances when the reduced rate is applicable in terms of section 64G(3) of the Act will also be clarified. In order to achieve these objectives, an analysis of factors that should be taken into account to define and determine beneficial ownership, was undertaken. Common- and civil law definitions were investigated. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (‘OECD’) Model Tax Conventions (MTCs’) and its Commentaries provided possible factors to assist in identifying the beneficial owner. In the absence of a decision by a South African court, the judgements in the five international court cases were consulted. Four steps were formulated to reach a conclusion. In terms of the these steps, the trust beneficiary remains the beneficial owner of dividend income received by a trust in the case of the income having been distributed by the trustees in having exercised their discretion in terms of the trust deed. In the case of contingent beneficiaries it is suggested that the trust, with the trustees, acting in their official capacity on behalf of the trust, would be seen as the beneficial owner of the dividend income. In terms of section 64G(3) of the Act, where a foreign trustee or a foreign trust beneficiary has been identified as the beneficial owner(s) of a dividend, the rate at which Dividends Tax is withheld could be reduced as a result of the application of a double tax agreement. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die begrip uiteindelik geregtigde kom mees algemeen voor in die dividende, rente en die tantième artikels van dubbel belasting ooreenkomste (Baker, 2007:15), tog is daar steeds onsekerheid oor die werklike betekenis van hierdie begrip (Du Toit, 2010: 500). Nadat Dividendbelasting op 1 April 2012 in Suid-Afrika in werking getree het, het dit noodsaaklik geword om die betekenis van die begrip uiteindelik geregtigde vas te stel ten einde artikel 64E van die Inkomstebelastingwet Nr. 58 van 1962 (‘die Wet’) korrek toe te pas. Artikel 64EA(a) van die Wet bepaal dat die aanspreeklikheid vir Dividendbelasting op die “uiteindelik geregtigde van ‘n dividend namate die dividend nie ‘n uitkering van ‘n bate in specie uitmaak nie” [klem bygevoeg] val. Artikel 64D van die Wet as "die persoon geregtig op die voordeel van die dividend verbonde aan ‘n aandeel", nogtans kan die toepassing hiervan in 'n diskresionêre trust uitdagend wees, aangesien wettige eienaarskap onderskei moet word van ekonomiese eienaarskap (PWC Synopsis, 2012:6). In die afwesigheid van leiding deur die Suid-Afrikaanse Inkomstediens ('die SAID'), ontstaan die eerste probleem weens die interpretasie van die begrip binne die konteks van dividend inkomste ontvang deur 'n diskresionêre trust (Louw, 2012:1). Dit lei tot 'n tweede probleem wat verband hou met die korrekte toepassing van artikel 64G(3)(a)(i) van die Wet, wat voorsiening maak vir 'n verminderde koers Dividendbelasting. Die doel van hierdie studie is om grense af te baken vir die bepaling van die uiteindelik geregtigde van dividend inkomste binne die konteks van 'n diskresionêre trust, waar die dividend betaal word ten opsigte van aandele gehou in 'n maatskappy wat ‘n inwoner is, tot die mate dat die dividend nie bestaan uit 'n uitkering van 'n bate inspecie nie. Die gevalle waar die verminderde tarief van toepassing is ingevolge artikel 64G(3) van die Wet, sal vasgestel word. Ten einde hierdie doelwitte te bereik, is 'n ontleding van die faktore wat in ag geneem moet word om die uiteindelik geregtigde te definieer en te bepaal, onderneem. Gemeenen siviele regs-definisies is ondersoek. Die ‘Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (‘OECD’) Model Tax Conventions (MTCs’) en sy kommentare verskaf moontlike faktore om te help in die identifisering van die uiteindelik geregtigde. In die afwesigheid van 'n besluit deur 'n Suid-Afrikaanse hof, word die besluite in die vyf internasionale hofsake geraadpleeg. Vier stappe is geformuleer om ʼn slotsom te bereik. In terme van die stappe, bly die trustbegunstigde die uiteindelik geregtigde van die dividendinkomste ontvang deur die trust, in die geval waar die inkomste uitgekeer word deur die trustees nadat hul diskresie uitgeoefen is in terme van die trustakte. In die geval van voorwaardelike begunstigdes, word dit gestel dat die trust, met die trustees wat in hul amptelike hoedanigheid namens die trust optree, gesien word as die uiteindelik geregtigde van die dividend inkomste. In terme van artikel 64G(3), waar 'n buitelandse trustee of 'n buitelandse trustbegunstigde as die uiteindelik geregtigde(s) van 'n dividend geïdentifiseer is, kan die koers waarteen Dividendbelasting weerhou word, verminder word as gevolg van die toepassing van 'n dubbelbelastingooreenkoms.

This diploma thesis deals with different aspects of international and domestic double taxation. Within international double taxation short treatise about national legislation related to double taxation is followed by the longer part dedicated on the tax conventions on income and capital which are the most effective instrument in the field of double taxation elimination. Then the negotiation process and their place in czech domestic legislation is described. One part focuses on the role played by European union in direct tax adjustment. Part about residence determinig (both individuals and companies) in case of existence of the tax convention and in case of its absence follows. Unilateral, multilateral and bilateral measures especially are desribed. As the example to illustrate the impact of different methods used to eliminate double taxation on tax is given practical calculation. Double taxation elimination procedure is explained on the concrete kind of income (dividends) at the end of the international double taxation charter. Within domestic double taxation its causes and kinds are desribed. Finally, last part looks at current and forthcoming czech legislation related to economical domestic double taxation.

Diploma thesis "Tax Havens in Europe- Case Study" analyses offshore business in Europe at the turn of years 2017 and 2018 from legal and economic perspective. The first chapter is an introduction to tax havens. The second chapter clarifies legal regulations of offshore business in Europe. The third chapter applies theoretical knowledge from previous chapters in a case study.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T18:40:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Alexandre Gonzales.pdf: 1329014 bytes, checksum: 783a3929155749d417e5d354ae0ec2fa (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-08-29 / Payment of interest on shareholders equity by companies has been increasing significantly since its creation, by Law 9.249/95. Since this law was created, the possibility of using this figure, which was restricted to few specific cases, was extended. The payment of interest on shareholders equity is optional, and might follow objective criteria to characterize as a deductible expense when calculating income and social taxes. This deduction can provide a considerable tax economy to companies. However, it is possible to verify that a significant number of companies have not joined the payment of Interest on shareholders equity. More than fifty per cent of publicly-traded companies joined the payment of Interest on shareholders equity, while the scenario, taking into consideration the companies which pays income and social taxes by Lucro Real mode as a whole, shows another reality. Informations obtained through numbers provided by Secretaria da Receita Federal do Brasil , the entity that monitors the income tax in Brazil, indicates less than 3% of these companies pay interest on shareholders equity. Why this systematic, with relatively simple implementation, clearly defined in law, and which can provide tax economy to the companies, has not been used more often? The research developed is classified as an exploratory search, and the study was conducted from documentary research, search field, and interviews. Will be searched companies operating in the segment called TRR Transportador Revendedor Retalhista, activity regulated by ANP Agência Nacional do Petróleo , the government entity that monitors the oil industry in Brazil. The research conducted in this study concludes that, among all the companies that do not pay interest on shareholders´ equity, 40% do not pay it because completely or partially ignore the issue, being impossible, then, for these companies, to estimate possible benefits arising from the payment of interest of shareholders´ equity / O pagamento de juros sobre o capital próprio pelas empresas teve um incremento significativo, desde sua criação, pela Lei 9.249/95. A partir da referida Lei, a possibilidade de utilização da referida figura, que era restrita a alguns casos específicos, foi estendida. O pagamento a título de juros sobre o capital próprio é opcional, e deve seguir critérios objetivos para caracterizar-se como despesa dedutível para fins de apuração de imposto de renda e contribuição social sobre o lucro. Tal dedução pode proporcionar às empresas uma considerável economia tributária. No entanto, é possível verificar que um número significativo de empresas não aderiu ao pagamento de juros sobre o capital próprio. Mais de cinqüenta por cento das empresas de capital aberto aderiram ao pagamento de juros sobre o capital próprio, enquanto que o cenário, levando-se em consideração as empresas optantes pelo Lucro Real como um todo, mostra outra realidade. Informações obtidas por meio de análise de números fornecidos pela Secretaria da Receita Federal do Brasil indicam que menos de 3% das empresas optantes pelo Lucro Real pagam juros sobre o capital próprio. Por que motivo a referida sistemática, de aplicação relativamente simples, claramente definida em lei, e que pode proporcionar economia tributária às empresas, não tem sido utilizada com mais freqüência? A pesquisa desenvolvida é classificada como uma pesquisa exploratória. O estudo foi realizado a partir de pesquisa documental, pesquisa de campo e entrevistas. Serão pesquisadas empresas atuantes no segmento denominado TRR Transportador Revendedor Retalhista, atividade regulamentada pela ANP Agência Nacional do Petróleo. A pesquisa realizada no presente trabalho conclui que, dentre as empresas estudadas que não pagam juros sobre o capital próprio, aproximadamente 40% não o fazem por desconhecer completamente o assunto, ou então por conhecê-lo pouco, não sendo possível, assim, que possam estimar os possíveis benefícios derivados do pagamento dos juros sobre o capital próprio

Micro-economic reform is a primary objective of modern Australian socio-economic policy. The key outcome targetted by this reform is increased efficiency, measured by a range of factors, including cost reduction, increased savings, and a more facilitative environment for business activity. These benefits are sought by the proponents of reform as part of a push to increase national prosperity, but concerns that social equity is undermined by it are expressed by opponents of that reform. The debate between efficiency and equity is raging in current Australian tax policy, a key site for micro-economic reform. As Government Budget restructuring occurs in Australia, demographic change (eg, the ageing population) undermines the ability of public funded welfare to provide retirement benefits. Responsibility for self-funded retirement is an important contributor to increasing private savings. Investment in growth assets such as corporate stock is increasing in Australia, however concerns about volatility of asset values and yield stimulate the importance of investment risk management techniques. Financial contract innovation utilising financial derivatives is a dominant mechanism for that risk management. Synthetic equity products which are characterised by capital protection and enhanced yield are popular and efficient equity risk management vehicles, and are observed globally, particularly in the North American market. Financial contract innovation, risk management using financial derivatives, and synthetic equity products suffer from an adverse tax regulatory response in Australia, which deprives Australian investors from access to important savings vehicles. The negative Australian tax response stems from anachronistic legislation and jurisprudence, which emphasises tax outcomes based on legal form. The pinnacle of this approach is the tax law insistence on characterisation of financial contracts as either debt or equity, despite some important financial similarities between these two asset types. Since derivatives produce transactions with novel legal forms this approach is unresponsive to innovation. The negative tax result also stems from a perception that the new products are tax arbitrage vehicles, offering tax benefits properly available to investment in stocks, which is thought to be inappropriate when the new products resemble debt positions (particularly when they are capital protected and yield enhanced). The negative tax response reflects administrative concerns about taxpayer equity and revenue leakage. This approach seeks to impose tax linearity by proxy: rather than utilising systemic reform to align the tax treatment of debt and equity, the current strategy simply denies the equity tax benefits to a variety of innovative financial contracts. It deprives Australians of efficiency enhancing savings products, which because of an adverse tax result are unattractive to investors. The weakness of the current approach is illustrated by critical analysis of three key current and proposed tax laws: the ???debt dividend??? rules in sec. 46D Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (the ???Tax Act???); the 1997 Budget measures (which seek to integrate related stock and derivative positions); and the proposals in the Taxation of Financial Arrangements Issues Paper (which include a market value tax accounting treatment for ???traded equity,??? and propose a denial of the tax benefits for risk managed equity investments). The thesis develops a model for financial analysis of synthetic equity products to verify the efficiency claims made for them. The approach is described as the ???Tax ReValue??? model. The Tax ReValue approach isolates the enhanced investment returns possible for synthetic equity, and the model is tested by application to the leading Australian synthetic equity product, the converting preference share. The conclusions reached are that the converting preference share provides the key benefits of enhanced investment return and lower capital costs to its corporate issuer. This financial efficiency analysis is relied upon to support the assertion that a facilitative tax response to such products is appropriate. The facilitative response can be delivered by a reformulation of the existing tax rules, or by systemic reform. The reformulation of the existing tax rules is articulated by a Rule of Reason, which is proposed in the thesis as the basis for the allocation and retention of the equity tax benefits. To avoid concerns about taxpayer equity and revenue leakage the Rule of Reason proposes a Two Step approach to the allocation of the equity tax benefits to synthetics. The financial analysis is used to quantify non-tax benefits of synthetic equity products, and to predict whether and to what extent the security performs financially like debt or equity. This financial analysis is overlayed by a refined technical legal appraisal of whether the security contains the essential legal ???Badges of Equity.??? The resulting form and substance approach provides a fair and equitable control mechanism for perceived tax arbitrage, whilst facilitating efficient financial contract innovation. The ultimate source of non-linearity in the taxation of investment capital is the differential tax benefits provided to equity and debt. To promote tax linearity the differentiation needs to be removed, and the thesis makes recommendations for systemic reform, particularly concerning the introduction of a system of ???Franked Debt.??? The proposed system of ???Franked Debt??? would align the tax treatment of debt and equity by replacing the corporate interest deduction tax benefit with a lender credit in respect of corporate tax paid. This credit would operate mechanically like the existing shareholder imputation credit. The interface of this domestic tax credit scheme with the taxation of International investment capital, and the problems occasioned by constructive delivery of franking credits to Australian taxpayers via synthetics, are resolved by the design and costings of the new system, which has the potential to be revenue positive.

No description available.

La tesi si focalizza sull'analisi dell'impatto della tassazione sulle scelte finanziarie delle imprese. nella prima parte dal lavoro viene presentata una review della letteratura teorica di riferimento. Successivamente vengono effettuate due diverse analisi empiriche finalizzate a spiegare quali siano le determinanti della politica di indebitamento e dei dividendi di imprese quotate dell'Area Euro e come esse si siano modificate dopo l'introduzione della moneta unica. / This research is implemented to investigate on the impact of taxation on corporate financial decisions. In particular two main financial policies are considered: the capital structure policy and the payout policy. This corporate dimensions are investigated making use of empirical approaches on Euro-firms data to investigate also on the impact of the introduction of the Euro on the same issues.

As ruin theory evolves in recent years, there has been a variety of quantities pertaining to an insurer's bankruptcy at the centre of focus in the literature. Despite the fact that these quantities are distinct from each other, it was brought to our attention that many solution methods apply to nearly all ruin-related quantities. Such a peculiar similarity among their solution methods inspired us to search for a general form that reconciles those seemingly different ruin-related quantities. The stochastic approach proposed in the thesis addresses such issues and contributes to the current literature in three major directions. (1) It provides a new function that unifies many existing ruin-related quantities and that produces more new quantities of potential use in both practice and academia. (2) It applies generally to a vast majority of risk processes and permits the consideration of combined effects of investment strategies, policy modifications, etc, which were either impossible or difficult tasks using traditional approaches. (3) It gives a shortcut to the derivation of intermediate solution equations. In addition to the efficiency, the new approach also leads to a standardized procedure to cope with various situations. The thesis covers a wide range of ruin-related and financial topics while developing the unifying stochastic approach. Not only does it attempt to provide insights into the unification of quantities in ruin theory, the thesis also seeks to extend its applications in other related areas.

As ruin theory evolves in recent years, there has been a variety of quantities pertaining to an insurer's bankruptcy at the centre of focus in the literature. Despite the fact that these quantities are distinct from each other, it was brought to our attention that many solution methods apply to nearly all ruin-related quantities. Such a peculiar similarity among their solution methods inspired us to search for a general form that reconciles those seemingly different ruin-related quantities. The stochastic approach proposed in the thesis addresses such issues and contributes to the current literature in three major directions. (1) It provides a new function that unifies many existing ruin-related quantities and that produces more new quantities of potential use in both practice and academia. (2) It applies generally to a vast majority of risk processes and permits the consideration of combined effects of investment strategies, policy modifications, etc, which were either impossible or difficult tasks using traditional approaches. (3) It gives a shortcut to the derivation of intermediate solution equations. In addition to the efficiency, the new approach also leads to a standardized procedure to cope with various situations. The thesis covers a wide range of ruin-related and financial topics while developing the unifying stochastic approach. Not only does it attempt to provide insights into the unification of quantities in ruin theory, the thesis also seeks to extend its applications in other related areas.

In this paper we examine the short and long-term relations between stock price, book value and residual income.  We employ a panel error correction model, estimated with Engle & Granger’s (1987) two-step procedure and the single equation methodology. The models are estimated with FE-OLS and the MG-estimator. We find that stock prices adjust previous periods equilibrium error. Further, we find that book value has short and long-term effects on stock prices. Finally, this paper finds mixed results regarding residual incomes impact on stock prices. The MG-estimator finds evidence for a short-term relationship, while the FE-OLS provides insignificant or weak support for short-term effects. FE-OLS and MG-estimator find insignificant or weak support regarding residual incomes long-term effects.