Carbon tax to earn R8-billion a year

The treasury will earn at least R8-billion from a R120 per tonne tax on carbon emissions from industry. But most companies will get a 60% discount. The treasury will earn at least R8-billion from a R120 per tonne tax on carbon emissions from industry. (Reuters) South Africa committed in 2009 to reduce its carbon emissions by 34% by 2020. Every government department was then told to do its part, and treasury chose a carbon tax. In this year’s Budget speech, Pravin Gordhan said the tax would start on January 1 2015. 

Changes in tax interest announced

As part of his 2013 Budget proposals, Minister Gordhan announced various changes to the tax treatment of interest. Firstly, as announced last year, the tax treatment of so-called ‘hybrid debt’ will be amended so as to re-characterise such debt as dividends. The main concerns in this area appear to be debt instruments that do not have a realistic possibility of being repaid in 30 years, or debt that is convertible into shares at the option of the issuer. Banks and insurers will be excluded from this re-characterisation treatment.

PwC 2013 Tax Budget Comments

PwC 2013 Tax Budget Comments Personal Income Tax Higher income tax earners will have R231,25 less income tax to pay per month, assuming they have a basic annual taxable income of R700,000. Lower income tax earners will pay R86 less income tax annually, assuming they have an annual basic taxable income of R165, 600.The individual threshold for submitting a tax return was raised from R120,000 to R250,000 per year. This means that taxpayers that have taxable income of less than R250,000 annually will not be required to submit tax returns.

Saica: Summary of budget proposals

Saica News Comprehensive notes on various tax; tables included. The following is a summary of the tax related budget proposals announced by the Minister of Finance on 27 February 2013. BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS The main tax proposals for 2013 include the following: • An employment tax incentive targeted to support young workers and those employed in special economic zones. • Individuals whose taxable income is from one employer and is below R250 000 a year are not required to submit income tax returns. • Levies on fuel increase by 23c per litre from 3 April 2013.

Budget 2013 – Share Schemes

By Andrew Lewis (DLA Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr) Executive summary Share incentive schemes were again mentioned in this year’s tax budget proposals. It thus appears that the broad-based employee share plan contemplated in s8B of the Income Tax Act will be reviewed and possibly merged with s8C of the Income Tax Act into a single employee share scheme regime.