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South Africa - LexisNexis
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Have Cape Town property prices reached their ceiling?
South Africa - Rawson
Cape Town property has become famed for its seemingly limitless price growth, despite the difficult national conditions that have caused stagnation in many other markets across the country.
Trends over recent months, however, suggest this meteoric rise may be coming to an end, leading many to question whether Cape Town property prices have finally reached their limit.
"There's no doubt that the first half of 2018 has been uncharacteristically slow for Cape Town property," says Schalk van der Merwe, franchisee for the Rawson Properties Helderberg Group.
"Time on market has increased significantly, asking prices are being dropped, and although online activity remains strong, far fewer prospective buyers are actually going to view properties.”
According to Van der Merwe, this evidence suggests that buyers and investors remain interested in Cape Town property (hence the online activity), but are reluctant to take the next step because of current market conditions. He attributes this reluctance to four main influencing factors: political uncertainty, the water shortage, a decrease in semigration, and - of course - affordability."
Rawson
When does prescription start to run against SARS?
South Africa - Garlicke & Bousfield
There are periods of limitations for issuing assessments which are set out in section 99 of the Tax Administration Act 28 of 2011 (“TAA”). Generally, SARS may not make an assessment three years after the date of an original assessment, or five years in the case where there has been a self-assessment. These limitations will not, however, apply if there has been fraud, misrepresentation or non-disclosure of material facts by the taxpayer.
In CSARS v Char-Trade 117 CC t/a Ace Packaging, the Supreme Court of Appeal had to decide when the five year prescription period commenced running in the case of a self-assessment. Between 2007 and 2011 the taxpayer made various loans to group companies, and following an audit, an assessment was issued by SARS for Secondary Tax on Companies (“STC”), on the basis that they were deemed dividends.
Garlicke & Bousfield press release
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