DUTY CALLS

Customs Refund VOC
On 16 May 2014 the
South African Revenue
Service (Sars) published
an amendment of the
Rules (DAR/138) to the
Customs and Excise Act
relating to form CR1:
“General Application for
Customs Refund: Voucher
of Correction Submission of
Documents in Terms of Rule
76.04”, which was effective on
the day.
In accordance with
Section 76(4) of the Act
“General refunds in respect of
imported goods or excisable
goods”, “No application
for a refund or payment
in terms of this section
shall be considered by the
Commissioner unless it is
received by the Controller,
duly completed and in the
form as may be prescribed
by rule and supported by the
necessary documents and
other evidence …”.
Fuel Levy Allocations
National Treasury on 16
May 2014 announced the
“Allocations to Metropolitan
Municipalities of General Fuel
levy Revenue” for the 2014/15
financial year, namely
Buffalo City Metropolitan
Municipality R362m; City
of Cape Town Metropolitan
Municipality R2.00bn;
City of Johannesburg
Metropolitan Municipality
R2.32bn; City of Tshwane
Metropolitan Municipality
R1.35bn; Ekurhuleni
Metropolitan Municipality
R1.47bn; eThekwini
Metropolitan Municipality
R1.97bn; Mangaung
Metropolitan Municipality
R257m; and Nelson
Mandela Bay Metropolitan
Municipality R459m.
VAT Vendors
Registration
On 16 May 2014 Sars
published draft regulations
for the registration of Valueadded
Tax (VAT) vendors on
which comment is due by 30
June 2014. According to the
briefing note, following the
2013 Budget announcement
that VAT registration would
be streamlined to ease the
compliance burden while
guarding against fraud,
certain amendments have
been made to voluntary
registration for VAT purposes
and include the following:
(i) To allow a person to
voluntarily register as a
vendor where no taxable
supplies have been made or
the taxable supplies made do
not exceed R50 000 and there
is a reasonable expectation
that the person would make
taxable supplies exceeding
R50 000 within the following
12-month period commencing
from the date of registration;
and (ii) In order to register a
person must demonstrate that
he conducts a continuous and
regular activity and that due
to the nature of the activity,
taxable supplies are likely to
be made only after a period
of time.
WTO Customs
Valuation Meeting
The World Customs
Organisation (WCO)
Technical Committee on
Customs Valuation held
its 38th session in Brussels
from 05 to 09 May 2014. The
Committee is responsible for
the technical interpretation of
the World Trade Organisation
(WTO) Agreement on
Customs Valuation and in
particular examines technical
questions submitted by
WTO/WCO Members.
The Committee examined
questions relating to the use
of transfer pricing studies
when examining related party
transactions, distribution
fees and royalties and licence
fees. A special theme meeting
was also held during the
week focusing on the issue of
undervaluation.
Duty Calls Watch List
Comment on the following is
due by 30 June 2014.
The draft interpretation
note on the supply of goods
and services by professional
foreign hunters.
The carbon offsets paper
and the review of the taxation
of alcoholic beverages in
South Africa.