On 8 June, National Treasury and the South African Revenue Service (SARS) published the 2016 Draft Taxation Laws Amendment Bill (TLAB) and the 2016 Draft Taxation Laws Amendment Bill (TALAB) for public comment. These Bills give effect to the tax proposals announced by the Minister in the 2016 Budget. One of the bills also contains amendments not announced in the Budget which deal with improving the effectiveness of the Office of the Tax Ombud.
The 2016 draft TLAB gives effect to the following key proposals announced in the 2016 Budget Review:
- Introducing measures to prevent tax avoidance through the use of trusts
- Refinement of the taxation of retirement savings
- Addressing the circumvention of rules dealing with employee share incentive schemes
- Refinement of the anti-avoidance rules dealing with cross border hybrid debt instruments rules
- Extending the renewable energy incentive to include supporting infrastructure used in producing renewable energy
- Repeal of the withholding tax on services regime
- Revision of a previous VAT amendment relating to notional input tax on goods containing gold
The draft bills and draft explanatory memorandum containing a comprehensive description of the draft amendments can be found on the National Treasury (www.treasury.gov.za) and SARS (www.sars.gov.za) websites
