On March 23rd 2010, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, setting in motion the most comprehensive health reform in the United States since 1965. Among many provisions within the near-3,000-page law, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) amends the Internal Revenue Code to include an excise tax on high cost employer-provided health plans. Starting in 2018, the new provision will levy a 40 percent tax on every dollar of health benefits received in excess of $10,200 for individuals and $27,500 for families. This provision alters tax policy dating back to 1954, and will significantly change employer-sponsored insurance in the United States.This thesis will analyze how the ACA came to include the excise tax for high cost health insurance, and discuss the political forces motivating this decision.

The right to tax is traditionally based on connection to jurisdiction. Taxation is divided into international and domestic systems. An international tax system subjects its residents to tax on their income from all around the world while a domestic tax system subjects its residents to tax only on income arising out of a source within the borders of such a State. Under the international tax system, a State's right to tax firstly depends on whether the taxpayer deriving the said taxable income is a resident of that country or not. With respect to an entity or enterprise, its place of effective management or its headquarters within a State is used to establish residence of such an entity in the State hence making the entity taxable. Where the enterprise does not have a place of effective management or headquarters in a State, hence rendering such enterprise a non-resident, treaty rules have established that the permanent establishment concept be used to tax business profits. The permanent establishment becomes the minimum criteria for establishing that such an enterprise has an economic presence within the borders of the source State. In the presence of an enterprise having cross-border transactions, it is possible for the enterprise to be subject to taxable under both the domestic tax system of the State within which it is a resident as well as under the international tax system of the source State within which it has a permanent establishment, thus arising the question of double taxation. To help solve such a situation, legal instruments, arising in the form of tax treaties were created to combat double taxation of income arising out of cross-border transactions. Integral in solving this situation is the concept of permanent establishment. The permanent establishment is a source rule; thus a basic requirement to be met before business profits of a non-resident that are attributable to its permanent establishment in the source State are taxed in that State. However, technology developments and the rise of electronic commerce are rising problems on the application of the permanent establishment concept in relation to taxing income from international sources of such businesses.3 The broad meaning of the permanent establishment concept, particularly its requirements, make it difficult and ambiguous during its application to enterprises that conduct their businesses electronically or via the internet.

In assessing the problems that arise when the practice of transfer pricing is applied to the transfer of intangible asset transfers there are certain areas and nuances that need to be recognized. These include the distinction between economic and legal ownership and the fact that the two concepts, in certain circumstance, are mutually exclusive. Furthermore, the fact that the traditional methods of transfer pricing may not be able to address the unique nature of certain intangibles and that even the more complex methods involving both parties may fall short in situations where the rights and obligations connected to the intangibles assets are not subject to written agreements or accounting standards and procedures. In delving into the interaction of these two fields I will first establish the playing field and the rules, being the practice of transfer pricing, both on the international stage and domestic level. Next it will be necessary to understand the nature of intangible assets as viewed internationally. Upon reviewing the status of intangible assets in the context of transfer pricing I hope to locate the shortcomings caused by the unique characteristic of intangibles and hopefully will be able to suggest some viable options and alternatives.

This dissertation endeavours to analyse the case Commissioner for the South African Revenue Service v Labat Africa Ltd and its consequences in order to conclude whether the tax law created by the court is sound. Specifically it looks at the progression of the case through the different courts, as well as the other court cases referred to in the different courts. The research found that the case defined, for the first time, the term "expenditure" for South African Income Tax purposes. It also found that the new definition may have created consequences for the interpretation of other sections of the Income Tax Act.

SARS has many powers afforded to it by tax legislation, this dissertation explores the history and development of the powers of search and seizure to determine whether taxpayer's rights are violated when SARS performs search and seizure operations under the Tax Administration Act No 28 of 2011, and whether South Africa requires a taxpayer's Bill of RIghts. / Mini Dissertation (LLM ( Taxation))--University of Pretoria, 2021. / Mercantile Law / LLM (Tax Law) / Unrestricted

"[I]f a taxpayer, acting on ingenious advice succeeds in avoiding the payment of tax which other taxpayers, who do not have access to such ingenious advice, pay . . . and in the result Fiscus loses tax, it is not customary for the courts to shed any tears on behalf of it; the taxpayer has done what he was entitled to do, and that is the end of the matter. What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander" "If the person sought to be taxed comes within the letter of the letter of the law he must be taxed however hard the hardship may appear to the judicial mind to be. On the other hand if the Crown, seeking to recover the tax, cannot bring the subject within the letter of the law, [he] is free however apparently within the law the case might appear to be" In any tax planning strategy, the best option is to receive an amount [that] does not attract any tax at all "[H]onesty in regard to tax matters is often something different and ... less than the rest of our lives”

Estate planning has been described as the process whereby a person acquires property, ensuring that he derives maximum benefits from his ownership and the enjoyment thereof during his lifetime, and that as much as possible and in the most economical manner with the minimum erosion thereof shall devolve upon his heirs when he dies. ( 1) The objective of estate planning is thus, in essence, the disposal of property during the estate owner's ('the planner') lifetime or upon his death.

As the burden borne by the South African taxpayer seems to increase yearly, the prudent taxpayer must embrace the various deductions available to him or her in terms of the Act . In order to do so the taxpayer must understand the ambit of each deduction so that he or she may plan accordingly. A deduction that has for many years granted relief to the weary taxpayer is that contained in Section 1 l(d).

My thesis is on tax avoidance provisions in South Africa. I want to present an overview of tax avoidance in South Africa but I will concentrate more on section 103(1) which is the general anti - tax avoidance provision in South Africa.I will then proceed to look at the artificial tax avoidance, and a comparative analysis between United Kingdom (UK) and South Africa on the substance over form approach as a new approach to tax avoidance. Much has been said on tax avoidance and it is an area which has generated much interest and curiosity to the society at large.

Income tax has been and will continue to be the subject of much emotion, in some instances the distinction between tax evasion and tax avoidance being blurred beyond comprehension. MacDonald JP once vented his judicial spleen and hurled his person, with respect rather unceremoniously, armed with gown and gavel (perhaps much to the relief of the taxpayer's counsel), into a hysteria of emotional outburst as follows: [f]he avoidance of tax is an evil. Not only does it mean that a taxpayer escapes the obligation of making his proper contribution to the fiscus, but the effect must necessarily be to cast an additional burden on taxpayers who, imbued with a greater sense of civic responsibility, make no attempt to escape or, lacking the financial means to obtain the advice and set up the necessary tax-avoidance machinery, fail to do so. Moreover, the nefarious practice of tax avoidance arms , opponents of our capitalistic society with potent arguments that it is only the rich, the astute and the ingenious who prosper in it and that 'good citizens' will always .fare -badly. While undoubtedly the short term effects of the practice are serious, the long term effects could be even more so.