M.Com. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

The subject of trusts, even in the particular area of income tax, is vast. Therefore, it is important that I discuss from the outset the outline of my approach in order to give my treatment of the subject under consideration form and direction. And that is what I propose to do briefly here. The discussion consists of five parts. The first of these is the Background which includes definitions and an historical note which I consider to be necessary in view of the largely common law - as opposed to a codified magnus opus 1 - basis of South African law of trusts, where "Other statutes are superimposed, like a ship upon the water, on the common law without replacing it .... The second part also has some historical element, but this is limited to the Taxability of Trusts, qua trusts or legal personae, in income tax law; while the third deals with kinds of Trusts and Their significance. The fourth looks at Income Tax Avoidance Opportunities while the last considers Anti-Avoidance Provisions of the Act 3 Relevant to Trusts, interspersed with one or two examples of schemes not only immune to the specific anti- • avoidance provisions of Section 7 but probably also to the general anti-avoidance provisions of Section 103 (1). Examples will be liberally used for purposes of illustration.

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Trusts with special regard to their foundation and administration Abstract The purpose of my thesis is to analyse foundation and administration of trusts in the Czech Civile Code with respect to the main theoretical issues such as essencialia, naturatia and accidentalia negotii of the primary foundation legal document with is called "statut". I also concentrate on the status of beneficiary, but mainly on the rights and duties of the administrator of the trust. The reason for my research is to develop a system concerning the elementary questions relating to the legal life of the trust, to tackle main theoretical problems and to distinguish between significant phases of its existence and its admninistration. The thesis is composed of three chapters, Chapter Two being most detailed. Chapter one which is subdivided into three parts is dealing with preliminary questions such as the concept of trust and its history and international variation of similar institutes such as fiducie, treuhand and common law trust. Chapter One is introductory and defines the concept of trust: it is quasi legal subject made of structure of rights and duties towards autonomous assets and of rights and duties concerning its administration in largo sensum. Chapter Two examines relevant Czech legislation involving trusts, primarily the...

Abstract It has been four whole years ever since Legislative Yuan passed the taxation of trusts for the third time on May 29, 2001. Last year (2004) the real estate investment trust (referred to as ¡§REIT,¡¨ hereinafter) business handled by trust dealers was extremely prosperous, forming a major trend in the market. Trusts have a lot of functions, such as security of assets, appreciation of assets, engagement in public charity, serving as conduit, etc. But the most important merit of trusts is the function of tax saving, which caused a high popularity of REIT last year. However, the taxation problems of trusts are too controversial. Apart from their being regulated by laws, there is still much room for evasion of tax payment. Due to the diversity of the behaviors of trusts, the government still could not find out a perfect taxation method. Based on the fairness and justice of taxation, conduit theories of trust, judgment of tax income for the treasury, neutral principles of taxation and the executive principles according to law, it is easy to attend to several things only but lose sight of some others as there are too many things to be paid attention to. Even up to May 31, 2005, taxpayers still did not know how to declare the synthetic tax for the fiscal year of 2004 over the trusts with unspecified, non-existed beneficiary, or specified beneficiary but the authorizer preserves the right of changing the beneficiary. As affected, it is still uncertain of the taxation rules for the REIT contracts amounting to tens of billions of NT dollars signed last year. The taxation techniques are seriously lagged behind the economic behaviors. In view of this, the study still refers to the books of trusts written by local authors, and takes the taxation of trusts, including income tax, legacy tax, land appreciation tax, land value tax, contract tax, house tax, business tax, etc. and the related in interpretations as the research areas, and then judges the situation with the references of the related articles in newspaper, magazines and journals, attempting to find out the best way of taxation of trusts. Under the objective, legal, rational, concrete and workable principles, some significant conclusions are made. It is hoped that among the varied arguments, the research results of this paper could get co-understanding from most of the people, become referential to the taxation policies of the government, make concrete contributions to the practical implementation, and make the future trust business achieve prosperous development.

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Pension funds are the principal sources of retirement income for millions of people in the world. Pension funds are also important contributors to the gross domestic product (GDP) of countries. This study focuses on pension funds in Kenya. Retirement income accounts for 68 percent of the total income of retirees in Kenya, while pension assets account for 30 percent of Kenya’s GDP. It is therefore important that pension funds be managed effectively, not only in Kenya, but also in other countries. The primary objective of the study is to investigate ways of enhancing pension fund efficiency by establishing the determinants of such efficiency. More specifically, the study explores the effect that the organisational culture, regulations, investment strategy, ethics, risk management, design, size and the age profile of members of pension funds exert on the efficiency of these funds. A sample of 749 pension funds was drawn from the Kenyan Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA) register. The sample selection was based on the criterion that these pension funds should have been in existence within the period 2001 to 2008. Seven hundred and forty-nine (749) questionnaires were mailed to the trustees of these pension funds. Three hundred and sixty-two (362) usable questionnaires were returned, which translated into a response rate of 48.3 per cent. Except for financial efficiency, self-constructed instruments based on secondary literature reviews were used to measure the variables in the hypothesised model to improve pension fund efficiency. Appropriate steps were taken to ensure the validity and reliability of these measuring instruments. The empirical results revealed that leadership, governance, regulations, design, membership age and size of funds had no significant influence on operational efficiency of these funds. The results further showed that the membership age, design, regulations and operational efficiency of pension funds exerted no significant influence on their financial efficiency. The results also revealed that the membership age, size and design of pension funds did not influence how these funds were led by their leadership. iv The empirical results however showed that smaller pension funds were perceived to exhibit better financial efficiency, while pension funds with membership aged 31 - 40 were perceived to be better governed compared to other age groups. Finally, in rigorous structural equation analyses, no significant relationships were found between fund regulations (independent variable), on the one hand, and fund governance and leadership (dependent variables), on the other hand. Use of simple linear regression however disclosed a significant positive relationship between the afore-mentioned independent variable and dependent variables.

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