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The International Tax Environment And Simplification Of South African Tax Legislation: A Double-Edged Sword, Jinyan Li, Teresa Pidduck

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In this paper, we examine the relationship between the international tax environment and legislative complexity in South Africa’s international tax system. We suggest that the international tax environment is a double-edged sword. It causes complexity in South Africa’s tax legislation as it largely responds to the needs of OECD countries and produces tax rules to deal with ‘sophisticated’ tax problems and taxpayers (such as multinational enterprises). When such rules are transplanted into South Africa, they are typically more complex than local rules dealing with local taxpayers. On the other hand, the international tax environment offers ideas for ‘scientific’ drafting of …