RECENT NEWS
Sperm donor’s bid for child contact denied
A sperm donor has failed in his bid to have contact with the child he ‘fathered’. This is the effect of a ruling by Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) in an unusual battle in which the donor and his mother sought visitation rights for the now five-year-old child. The...
Can you bypass Estate Duty through the use of a Trust?
Estate Duty is a material ‘death tax’ that very few people take cognisance of. Luckily, in terms of Section 4(q) of the Estate Duty Act, but subject to its strict requirements, relief is provided to surviving ‘spouses’ who may have contributed to the accumulation of...
RAND, STOCKS SLIDE ON EMERGING MARKET JITTERS
The Rand in tandem with South African stocks retreated yesterday, tracking declines in emerging-market peers as the US Federal Reserve’s hawkish turn hurt appetite for riskier assets. The Rand slid to R14.16 to the greenback yesterday and is currently trading at...
Duties of a trustee
This is a useful article setting out how important the role of a Trustee is and why appointment as a |Trustee should not be taken lightly – Ant Jenkins By Louis van Vuren, CEO of FISA Have you been asked to act as a trustee on a trust? Are you planning to appoint a...
Got Cryptocurrency? Here’s How Much SARS Wants…
This is an interesting article by accountants Alan H English on the tax implications of holding or trading in Cryptocurrencies. The future of money is digital currency” (Bill Gates, Co-founder of Microsoft) Note: The risks and consequences of wilfully or...
This is a useful article pertaining to the use of Trusts in situations involving Dementia
(I am of the opinion, however, that the portion that I have italicised below, may not be completely correct as there are limits to what a Trustee may and may not do on behalf od such a person, and where a Curator Bonis would be required. I do agree, however, that a...
This is an interesting article on the use of “Business” or “Trading” Trusts
Bankruptcies in South Africa averaged 229 companies per month from 1980 until 2020. In August 2000, an all-time high of 511 companies declared bankruptcy, compared to the record low of 63 companies in May of 1988. Projected bankruptcies for 2021 is 220 companies per...
Could your Trust be disregarded by the Courts?
The fact that you have a written trust deed is no guarantee that your assets are safe and that the trust is safe from attack. If you never intended to create a “genuine” trust from the outset, the trust may be attacked and labelled as a sham trust; in other...
Instruction on a will not enough, court rules
A written instruction to draft a will cannot be elevated to the status of a will, the Western Cape High Court has ruled. Rapport reports that family members of as deceased person approached the court to declare that her written and signed instruction to Nedbank to...