Invoice date or cash receipt date : a critical analysis of the time of supply of value added tax

M.Com. (South African and International Taxation)Value-added tax (hereafter referred to as VAT) is an „indirect tax‟. Clegg, D (2006: 1) explains this to mean that: “the person who bears the tax is assessed not directly by the SARS but indirectly through the taxation of transactions into which he enters”. The name „value-added tax‟ is the difference between the output tax collected and input tax paid. This is, essentially, tax on the value added before the product or service is received for final consumption. The SABC became a registered VAT vendor when VAT was introduced in 1991. There has been a contentious battle for many years between SARS and the SABC on whether or not a „renewal notice‟, issued to potential television licence holders by the SABC, as a reminder to licence holders to renew their television licence, serves as an invoice for the purpose of determining the tax liability payable by the SABC in terms of the Value-Added Tax Act No 89 of 1991, as amended (hereafter referred to as the VAT Act)