Absa and Another v CSARS

This Tax Court VAT Section 21 Judgment examines the VAT treatment of financial services, focusing on whether certain banking activities qualify as exempt supplies.

The case highlights the interpretation of “financial services” under VAT legislation and clarifies the boundaries between taxable and exempt transactions, offering key insights into compliance, input tax claims, and structuring within the banking sector.

Explore the key changes in SARS’ VDP Guide Issue 2, including eligibility, audit timing, voluntariness, penalties, cross-tax disclosure risks, rejection decisions and the finality of VDP agreements.

VAT Ruling VR 014 (9 January 2026) approves the page-space and varied turnover-based apportionment methods under sections 17(1) and 41B of the VAT Act.

In this practical training session, we unpack Tax Court judgment IT 24852 (Taxpayer EPP v SARS), where a taxpayer sought to deduct R38.8 million after customs and excise refund claims became time-barred. Explore the critical distinction between expenditure and loss under section 11(a), the timing of deductions, the impact of prescribed refund claims, understatement penalties, interest, and potential post-judgment remedies through reduced assessments and prescription exceptions under the Tax Administration Act

Debts are often written off or restructured in some way. These typically tend to have tax consequences. This session discusses what those tax consequences are.

Binding Private Ruling 424 examines whether interest on a loan used to redeem preference shares and settle related dividends is deductible under section 24J of the Income Tax Act.