The taxation of foreign exchange differences

M.Com. (Taxation)One of the canons of context requires that a liability will be in 1986:para 4.47). taxation is certainty. "Certainty taxpayer be reasonably certain of what any given set of circumstances" (Margo in this his tax Report, It is submitted that, at present, there is not the desired certainty regarding the treatment of unrealised foreign exchange differences. This is proven by the internal memorandum circularised by the Commissioner of Inland Revenue, advising local Receivers of Revenue to put on hold all income tax returns with unrealised foreign exchange losses and all objections to the disallowance of these losses until such time that it has, in consultation with professional bodies, been able to establish an acceptable solution to the problem (Commissioner for Inland Revenue, n.d.). No finality has been reached to date and uncertainty therefore still prevails on either side of the fence, resulting in losses to both parties. As a result of the Commissioner's instruction not to assess income tax returns with foreign exchange differences, Revenue suffers significant losses from a cash flow point of view. This is because a taxpayer is entitled to base his first and second provisional tax payment for a particular tax year on his "basic amount", this being his taxable income or assessed loss for the last tax year for which he has been assessed. For many affected taxpayers, this is their 1984 tax year in respect of which they reported a considerably lower taxable income than for their last year of assessment. This means that their first two provisional tax payments in respect of a particular tax year can be extremely low in comparison to their taxable income for their last year of assessment. There are also quite a few taxpayers who had an assessed loss for their 1984 tax year who are therefore not required to make a payment at all. It follows, therefore, that Revenue could improve its cash flow position by not allowing assessments to fall too far in arrears. Conversely, disallowance response to pay tax on purposes. taxpayers lose where they have objected to the of their foreign exchange losses and are still awaiting a their objections as, in the meantime, they will have to the basis that the losses are not deductible for tax The direct effect of the disallowance of unrealised foreign exchange losses would be that the after tax cost of borrowings from abroad would be unacceptably high, thus creating a bias towards local borrowing. In a country in dire need of foreign capital, this situation is obviously totally undesirable