A South African supermarket group's local entity, SCL, paid routine fees while its Mauritian subsidiary held trademarks and collected franchise royalties from African operations. SARS found SCL actually performed all DEMPE functions for the group's intangibles and applied the CUP method to make large upward adjustments to SCL's taxable income. The South Africa Tax Court upheld the revenue authority's assessment in April 2025 ... Read more

Two UK settlors established Mauritius family trusts under a round-the-world scheme to avoid capital gains tax on shares in TeleWork Group Plc. HMRC challenged the trusts' Mauritius residence, arguing their place of effective management remained in the UK. The Upper Tribunal upheld the First-tier Tribunal's decision in favour of the tax authority, confirming the POEM test was correctly applied and the CGT avoidance scheme failed ... Read more

Redington India transferred its shareholding in a UAE subsidiary to a Cayman Islands step-down subsidiary without consideration, claiming the transfer was a gift exempt from capital gains tax. The Indian tax authorities disputed this, applying transfer pricing rules and the CUP method. The Madras High Court ruled mostly in favour of the taxpayer in December 2020, accepting the gift characterisation and the legitimacy of the tax planning structure ... Read more

A Zimbabwean motor vehicle importer and distributor faced tax assessments following an audit covering transfer pricing, VAT, import prices, and management fees paid to a Mauritius intermediary. The Zimbabwe High Court ruled predominantly in favour of the tax authority in January 2018, confirming that management fees were improperly claimed, finding intent to evade tax, and upholding the 100% penalty imposed by the Commissioner ... Read more

Oxfam’s list of Tax Havens, in order of significance are: (1) Bermuda (2) the Cayman Islands (3) the Netherlands (4) Switzerland (5) Singapore (6) Ireland (7) Luxembourg (8) Curaçao (9) Hong Kong (10) Cyprus (11) Bahamas (12) Jersey (13) Barbados, (14) Mauritius and (15) the British Virgin Islands. Most notably is The Netherlands placement as no. 3 on the list. Oxfam researchers compiled the list by assessing the extent to which countries employ the most damaging tax policies, such as zero corporate tax rates, the provision of unfair and unproductive tax incentives, and a lack of cooperation with international processes against tax avoidance (including measures to increase financial transparency). Many of the countries on the list have been implicated in tax scandals. For example Ireland hit the headlines over a tax deal with Apple that enabled the global tech giant to pay a 0.005 percent corporate tax rate in the country. And the British Virgin Islands is home to more ... Read more

MTN International Ltd (Mauritius) claimed interest deductions on intra-group loans against its South African gross income. SARS issued a revised assessment on the final day before prescription, disallowing the deductions and creating a tax liability of over R73 million. A clerical backdating error led MTN to challenge the assessment's validity. South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal in 2014 upheld the assessment, ruling that the date error was inadvertent and did not invalidate it ... Read more

A Mauritius-registered captive reinsurance trust conducted business with a South African insurer while managing assets through a South African asset manager. SARS challenged the trust's claimed offshore status, arguing it had a permanent establishment in South Africa. The South Africa High Court ruled mostly in favour of the tax authority in 2011, finding insufficient economic substance in Mauritius to rebut the permanent establishment characterisation ... Read more