Please see below a summary of the ongoing work on negotiating new DBA and updating existing agreements: 4 Protocol amending the agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of Malta on the prevention of double taxation and the prevention of tax evasion at income tax from 24.04.2013 , signed in Moscow on 01.10.2020. On 8 September 2020, the Russian and Cypriot authorities signed a protocol amending the current Double Taxation Convention (TD). The specific provisions for border workers are contained in the following double taxation conventions: the National Ministry of Finance and the South African Financial Service have informed the Committee on International Tax Treaties and Protocols. It was found that South Africa had emigrated from a secondary corporate tax to the dividend tax at the shareholder level. The contracts had to be amended because they were found not to be doing properly under the new regime, as they had a zero tax rate. A number of amendments were therefore required to bring them in line with the new tax system. The Ministry of Finance provided information on key investments and trade flows between South Africa and a number of other countries. Members asked how the National Ministry of Finance had compiled these figures, commented that South Africa had products that were missing from other countries, which gave it a competitive advantage, and asked to what extent this had been taken into account when developing the figures. They questioned the lack of registration of trade between South Africa and Cyprus and found that this would probably change in the future and found that at this stage there were no amendments that the Committee had to take into account. The South African Finance Service (SARS) has informed the Committee on Double Taxation Protocols and Conventions. SARS had ensured that the renegotiated articles complied with OECD rules and requirements. The treaty changes with Ireland, Oman, Cyprus, Seychelles and Malta have been described in detail. With respect to dividends, the rule was generally that the tax would be at least 10% for one shareholding and 5% for all other dividends.
The agreement with Seychelles was different because the incomes of professionals were considered normal commercial benefits and not separately. SARS was able to negotiate the rates desired by the provisions of the agreement between SA and Malta. The culmination of the agreement between SA and the United Kingdom was that both states were entitled to collect taxes on behalf of the other state, and bank secrecy and the need for an internal tax rate were no longer barriers to the exchange of information. The agreement with Germany had to be corrected with regard to the German text. There was an article that said that the same rules for civil servants would apply to German citizens working for the German-South African Chamber of Commerce. SA and Malawi could claim a person`s residence for tax purposes through an agreement. The threshold for determining permanent residence was 183 days or 6 months of operation in a contracting state. Members asked about the procedure when a South African-based company owned foreign shareholders, questioned the 183-day rule and expressed concern about the capital tax system and found that there was more income tax revenue and that it was necessary to discuss the sustainability of the model.