The taxation of income and expenditure of trusts in South Africa

Marais, Madelein

The taxation of income and expenditure of trusts in South Africa

Thesis

2014

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Department of Commercial Law

Faculty

Faculty of Law

Abstract

The use of trusts remains popular in South Africa. Trusts are often perceived to solve all problems but the tax law provisions applicable to trusts are often highly complicated causing the person making use of the trust to be stepping into a minefield. The formation of a trust has for many years been a very popular financial planning tool for various reasons. SARS has been clamping down on trusts and with the introduction of capital gains tax and transfer duty the use of trusts has lost some of its appeal. Trust has however remained a very useful estate planning tool, so useful that the Katz Commission proposed that the use of trusts as a "generation skipping device" should be curtailed and that trusts should be subject to a capital tax at periodic intervals on the market value of their net assets. This has not been implemented yet but should be kept in mind for the future. This research paper has an in depth look at the taxation of the income and expenditure of trusts as it currently stands.

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