5TH GRADUATION & MEMBERS’ ADMISSION CEREMONY

FOR THE INSTITUTE OF CERTIFIED TAX ACCOUNTANTS

Date: 30 AUGUST 2024 (0900HRS-1200HRS)

Venue: CRESTA LODGE (MSASA) - SANGO CONFERENCE CENTRE

 

Theme for the 5^th Graduation & Members Admission Ceremony

“Celebrating the Unsung Heroes of the financial world”

 

The Institute of Certified Tax Accountants is delighted to invite newly qualified;

1.     Tax Technician Diploma graduands (TechCTAs) and;

2.     Post-Graduate Diploma in Applied Taxation graduands (CTAs),

Along with family and friends, to celebrate their Graduation and Admission to Professional Membership.

 

The 5^TH GRADUATION & MEMBERS’ ADMISSION CEREMONY of the Institute of Certified Tax Accountants has been scheduled for FRIDAY, 30^TH OF AUGUST 2024 at the CRESTA LODGE (MSASA) - SANGO CONFERENCE CENTRE, from 0900hrs to 1200hrs.

 

We know that you will want to share this celebration with family and friends and hope that you understand that for capacity reasons we must limit this to two guests per graduand/member.

 

Information regarding preparations for the ceremony is detailed below:

 

1.    DECLARATION OF INTENT TO GRADUATE (click the link below to complete the form)

The completed form should be submitted to the Institute by Friday, 26^th of July 2024.

(https://form.jotform.com/241835239837062)

 

2.    CLEARANCE AND GRADUATION FEES (To be paid up by Friday, 16^th August 2024)

Each graduand must clear with the Institute if he or she does not owe any money to the Institute and pay a compulsory Graduation Fee Of $160.00 (covering your graduation regalia - gown, hood and tassel, 2 guests, snacks, photos).

 

Only cleared graduands who will have paid their Graduation fees will be allowed to graduate.

 

3.    REHEARSAL

a)     The rehearsal is an integral part of the Graduation Ceremony.

b)    All graduands intending to participate in the Ceremony must attend the Rehearsal on Thursday, 29^th August 2024 at the Cresta Lodge (Msasa) - Sango Conference Centre (time to be advised).

 

4.    ATTIRE FOR GRADUATION

All graduands must be formally dressed and in full Academic Regalia.

 

5.    INVITATION CARDS

Each graduand will receive two invitation cards for two guests, no person without a card will be allowed into the Graduation Venue on the Graduation Day.

6.    GRADUATION DAY

All graduands will be expected to be at the venue by 08:00 hours

All the guest and graduands to be seated at the venue by 08:30 hours

7.    Photographs

Individual photographs of all graduands who wish to participate in the Graduation ceremony will be professionally captured in their respective gowns. A link with soft copies of the professionally captured photographs will be emailed to the graduands after the Graduation ceremony.

 

Counting on your corporation to make this ceremony a success.

 

Thank You

 

Innocent Z. Chimbavaira

HEAD OF SECRETARIAT

Turkey's Revenue Administration has announced that officials from Turkey and Zimbabwe met from 14 to 17 May 2024 for the first round of negotiations for an income tax treaty. Any resulting treaty would be the first of its kind between the two jurisdictions and must be finalized, signed, and ratified before entering into force.

ttps://orbitax.com/news/archive.php/Tax-Treaty-between-Turkey-and--55808

Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), the owners of Unki Platinum Mine located in Zimbabwe today released its seventh annual Tax and Economic Contribution Report, with a detailed breakdown of the company’s contributions across all its major operating jurisdictions, amounting to more than $25 billion in 2020.

In a year that was ravaged by COVID-19 induced lockdowns that crippled business activity, the contribution was down from the previous year, when Amplats made a total tax and economic contribution of $28.5 billion.

Amplats Chief Executive Officer Mark Cutifani said, “Our annual Tax and Economic Contribution Report helps our stakeholders more fully understand the breadth of our role in society.

“The enduring positive impact of a business can only be properly assessed when you consider the total footprint of its contributions. It is with this transparency that we seek to build trust as a corporate leader in our industry – a key pillar of our Sustainable Mining Plan.

“The positive contribution we bring to the countries where we operate extends far beyond the taxes and royalties we pay. The high quality of employment that we provide and the associated wages, the money we spend with local suppliers, our corporate social investment, and our capital investments all support the fabric of many economies.

“In 2020, our contribution amounted to more than $25 billion, demonstrating the extent to which we continued contributing to the communities and countries where we work – both economically and socially – staying true to our Purpose as a business.”

Zahira Quattrocchi, Group Head of Tax at Anglo American, adds:

“Paying taxes is a central responsibility for sustainable businesses. Transparency around those taxes is also critical and, for Anglo American, is a dialogue we aim to continue to lead.

“We see our Tax and Economic Contribution Report not only as an opportunity to provide the detail of what we contribute, but also as an opportunity to explain the principles and values that underpin our broader approach, how we govern that approach, and how we engage with our stakeholders.”

The breakdown of Anglo American’s total tax and economic contribution in 2020 is set out below:

 Total taxes borne and collected            $5.3 billion
 Wages and related payments                $3.6 billion
 Corporate social investment                  $0.1 billion
 Total procurement                                   $12.6 billion
 Capital investment                                   $4.1 billion
 Total                                                            $25.7 billion

The Company has a primary listing on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange and secondary listings on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the Botswana Stock Exchange, the Namibia Stock Exchange and the SIX Swiss Exchange.

Equity Axis News

21st Century businesses in traditional industries have transformed over time, moving from regular “brick and mortar” models to operating in the digital space, focusing on the provision of online services. According to the World Bank, the digital economy accounts for 15.5% of global GDP and over the past 15 years, it is growing at a two and a half times rate to global GDP.

The events of 2020 particularly that of the COVID-19 pandemic, have increased the reliance on online technology, as individuals globally have had to stay indoors in response to various governments’ lockdown directives.

Consequently, there has been substantial increase in digital activities and significant revenue earnings from companies operating digitally or in the e-commerce space. In 2020, Amazon, for instance, had a 38% increase in revenue while Netflix recorded 37 million new subscribers. Such an increase in activities in the digital space is expected to translate to more revenue, profit and ultimately, more tax.

However, the challenge has been with the difficulty of countries establishing taxing rights over the profits of multinational enterprises (MNEs) operating in their jurisdictions. It is noteworthy that, under the rules of International taxation, “taxing rights” are allocated only to countries in which non-resident entities have created sufficient physical presence (a nexus). Therefore, a highly digital entity may be able to carry out activities globally without accounting for taxes in the jurisdiction where its income has been earned.

In response to the foregoing, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2015, addressed the taxation of the digital economy in its Action Plan 1, Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project. According to the OECD, the digital economy does not pose any special threats, albeit it may increase the BEPS risks. While the 2015 report concluded that more work needed to be done, the G20 Ministers to OECD/ G20 Inclusive Framework on BEPS released a detailed Programme of Work in 2019, which covered the taxability of digital transactions via its two-pillar model.

Pillar One (1) endorses a unified approach, designed to adapt countries’ taxing rights to take into account new business models and reallocate taxing rights in favour of the user/market country. Pillar Two (2) on the other hand focuses on global anti-base erosion. It would ensure that countries tax profits at a minimum rate, which would ordinarily have gone untaxed or would have been taxed at a lower rate, i.e. use of a “global tax rate”.

This notwithstanding, the ambitious goal of reaching a consensus for the Pillars by mid-2021 and implementation of these plans to tax the digital space either through changes to local laws and/or treaties would take a while.

While conversations are ongoing on an international taxation consensus that addresses the digital economy, several countries have set up unilateral frameworks. Africa is not left out of the conversation on taxing digital transactions. The African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) has proposed a digital services tax (DST) framework and content for legislation in individual African countries.

The DST framework would ensure that tax is levied (in addition to income tax) on the supply of certain specified services and charged at a fixed rate. This DST would not be creditable against a company’s income tax. Compared to income tax, DST would be relatively simpler to calculate and administer. However, this may result in double taxation for some companies, especially domestic companies that are already taxed in such countries.

In this regard, Tunisia has a 3% tax on gross income from sale of computer applications and digital services (effective 1 January 2020) and Kenya introduced a 1.5% tax on income earned through a “digital marketplace” with effect from January 2021. Nigeria also introduced in 2020 the concept of a “Significant Economic Presence” (SEP) as an additional basis of taxing a non-resident company (NRC) that operates in the digital space (i.e. digital NRC) and NRCs that provide services – consultancy, technical, management or professional that are not necessarily digital (i.e. service NRC) are captured under this new rule.

While a digital NRC is taxed at 30% of taxable profits on specified activities and in some instances where it derives up to N25million turnover from Nigeria, a service NRC only has a Withholding (WHT) tax charge of 10% on income derived from Nigeria. From a tax administration perspective, it may be easier to enforce the WHT obligations on service NRCs as the local customer in most cases would have physical presence that is accessible to the tax administrator for compliance enforcement purposes.

As countries begin to adopt unilateral measures to tax the digital economy, taxpayers and MNEs would need to observe closely the local changes as the implementation scope might vary from country to country. Also, taxpayers should prepare for additional reporting obligations and revenue segmentation as well as plan towards increased scrutiny from the tax authorities with respect to their digital transactions.

Considering that the taxing rules on the digital economy are subject to change from time to time, it is paramount that both the tax authorities and taxpayers must continually increase human capacity on tax related matters. Ultimately, MNEs and companies engaged in the digital space would need to assess the impact of all these tax measures (actual and proposed) on their bottom line and consider whether associated costs should be incorporated into their processes and/or passed on to the final customers.

Finally, given the fast-paced world of the digital economy, it appears that tax administrators may continue to play “catch-up” when coming up with specific rules on taxing digital transactions. However, creating an agile tax framework, which can be modified to meet changing circumstances, is more likely to meet the needs of all stakeholders, including tax administrators and taxpayers.
TaxTake.

As countries begin to adopt unilateral measures to tax the digital economy, taxpayers and MNEs would need to observe closely the local changes as the implementation scope might vary from country to country.

1 https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/digitaldevelopment/overview
2 https://www.forbes.com/sites/shelleykohan/2021/02/02/amazons-net-profit-soars-84-with-sales-hitting-386-billion/?sh=66f852971334
3 https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2021-01-19/netflix-signs-up-record-number-of-subscribers-in-2020