A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and
Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in
partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of
Commerce (specialising in Taxation)
Johannesburg, 2017 / As a result of a weakening and slow global economy and rising debt, many foreign
governments are finding it difficult to implement strategies to ensure continued inclusive and
sustainable growth. It is based on this troubling perspective of global uncertainty that tax
authorities worldwide have unanimously persisted in their fight against tax evasion through
the under-declaration of income from foreign assets, the illegal movement of money abroad,
the misapplication and / or manipulation of transfer pricing legislation and mistreatments of
tax treaties. The G20 Leaders together with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development (“OECD”) have developed standards such as the Common Reporting
Standard (“CRS”) for the Automatic Exchange of Information (“AEOI”) between tax
authorities to enhance the sharing of information and transparency of information between
tax authorities worldwide.
South Africa has pledged to implement the CRS and automatically share tax information with
other jurisdictions on an annual basis in the fight against tax evasion and avoidance. Of
significance, in terms of timing for South African tax residents, is that South Africa has
undertaken to be one of the early adopters of the CRS and committed to commence the first
exchange of information from 2017.
In light of the standards and actions coming into place, it has become clear that before long
the likelihood of the South African Revenue Services (“SARS”) and the South African
Reserve Bank (“SARB”) detecting tax evasion and avoidance is increasingly high. Based on
this, non-compliant taxpayers have a limited timeframe to manoeuvre freely in and what may
be their last opportunity to voluntarily disclose these assets and the income derived
therefrom to SARS and SARB without facing heavier penalties and possible criminal
prosecution. / MT 2018
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/24058 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | De Souza, Michelle Adriana |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | Online resource (107 leaves), application/pdf |
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