Thesis (M.Com. (Taxation))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Accountancy, 2017 / Share incentive schemes have been used for many years as a mechanism to compensate, retain and attract talent by offering employees a stake in the business. Share incentives, however, usually contribute an increasingly larger portion of executive pay in comparison with general employees. The motive for larger share incentive based compensation is on the foundation that management must have a skin in the game in order for their interest to be appropriately aligned with shareholders. The Treasury and the South African Revenue Service (‘SARS’) have historically viewed share incentive schemes with suspicion. Treasury and SARS consider these schemes as salary conversion plans designed avoid tax. This has led to a litany of tax legislation that has sought to combat this so called avoidance. As things stand it appears the legislation is far too reaching and no longer reflects the commercial and economic reality of an increasingly entrepreneurial world. The aim of this research report is to ascertain whether the current tax policy is effectively discouraging employee share ownership. This paper will consider the impact of the current tax provisions on share incentive schemes for both the employees and their companies’. The United Kingdom offer tax advantages for employee share ownership plans thus the report will also include a comparison with the tax legislation governing share option schemes in the UK. The comparison will aid in recommending a more sensible and equitable way forward with regards to the taxation of share incentive schemes in South Africa. Key words: Share incentive plans, Section 8B, Section 8C, executive remuneration, equity based compensation / GR2018

In the understanding of the author tax law and social security laws are studied in general separately. The author agrees with many doctrine authors that find it ‘surprising’ as this is a complete and linked issue, that all remote worker even cross-border/frontier workers face. However, it is worth mentioning here, for future reference and for the understanding in the continuity of this paper, is that remote worker and cross-border - frontier worker have usually different rules surrounding them. Additionally it may seem unusual for the reader to link digitalization of the economy and all its development with remote work; tax law and social security but in the eyes of the author it is all in some way linked. Firstly, developments in the digital world and its impact in economy transcendance in mobility of individuals. Which gives principally, the opportunities for employees to work from a remote place. Secondly, again in the eyes of the author, especially after the courses taken during this master year and in concordance with all the research done for this study; tax law and social security law are linked with each other. In conjunction the author finds it useful to study the issue born from the difficulty of tax allocation in regards to remote worker and the lack of compatibility between the social security legal system and the tax legal system. It is the purpose of this thesis to analyse and study these topics separately and then discuss throughout the paper the issues that may affect individuals especially remote workers but also states especially in our post pandemic states.

This paper analyzes the taxation on foreign dividends in comparative tax law. In particular, we study the European and North American system. Finally, we want to assess the Spanish system to avoid international double taxation and its reform, which will be put in force in 2015. / El trabajo tiene por objeto exponer cuál es el gravamen de los dividendos de fuente extranjera en el Derecho comparado, partiendo de la experiencia europea y la norteamericana. Dicho análisis tiene por finalidad última valorar el sistema español de eliminación de la doble imposición internacional, así como, sobre todo, su reforma, que entrará en vigor en 2015.

Trusts are subject to multiple fOl1lls of legislative regulation dealing with taxation and governance. Trusts were widely used by planners as taxavoidance shelters. Tax legislation was amended to subject trusts, other than special trusts as defined, to the highest income tax rate of forty percent, in tel1llS of section 5(2) of the Income Tax Act, 58 of 1962. The inter vivos trust is also subject to a wide range of anti-avoidance measures, including those contained in sub-sections (3) to (8) of section 7 of the Income Tax Act and Part X of the Eighth Schedule to the Act, as well as the general anti -avoidance measures in section 103. These measures impact negatively on the use of trusts for estate-planning purposes. The research objective was to evaluate the use of testamentary and inter vivos trusts for estate-planning purposes and to develop a holistic estate-planniD.g model incorporating these planning instruments. Both the testamentary trust and the inter vivos trust were evaluated against broad principles of effective estate planning and the taxes and duties applicable to them. The research also reviewed the writings of financial planners on various techniques and models used for estate planning, as wells as case studies documented in the literature. The research developed and evaluated holistic estate-planning models incorporating testamentary trusts and inter vivos trusts, respectively. By neutralizing the effects of various taxes and duties, it was demonstrated that it is possible to develop an estate plan that satisfies most of the requirements of effective estate planning.