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The Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, Act 25 of 2002 (“Act”) provides for the facilitation and regulation of electronic communications and transactions and recognises the validity and enforceability of agreements concluded via data messages.

The President of South Africa has proclaimed 1 July 2020 to be the commencement date of POPIA. The importance of this date is that a 1 (one) year “grace period” commences wherein all businesses, whether public or private, must comply with the conditions for the lawful processing of personal information.

The appraisal right may be described as the right of dissenting shareholders to have their shares bought out by the company in which they hold shares, in cash and at fair value when they do not approve of certain triggering events by the company.

The conduct of insider trading is governed by the common law and the Financial Markets Act, Act 19 of 2012 (the “Act”).

The registration, licensing and protection of plant breeders’ rights in South Africa is regulated by the Plant Breeder’s Rights Act, Act 15 of 1976 (the “Act”).

Servitudes are very common in the agriculture industry and are mostly required to provide for a right of way, access to water use for different farming purposes and / or extraction of certain materials from agricultural land.

Section 7(1)(a) of the Value-Added Tax Act, Act 89 of 1991 (the “Act”) provides for the levy of value-added tax (“VAT”) on the supply of goods or services by a vendor. Where there is no supply of goods or services, or where cash is supplied, no output VAT can be levied.

The businesses of farmers are often conducted through the use of juristic entities such as companies, close corporations and trusts. Their personal assets such as vehicles, property and movables are often owned in their own name.

A very tax efficient manner in which companies / a disposing shareholder normally structure an envisaged share sale is by instead of the disposing shareholder selling the said shares to a third party, it enters into a buyback agreement with the company in which it owns the shares (in terms of section 48 of the Companies Act). The said buyback is then followed by a subscription of shares in the company by a third party.

Section 9 of the Trust Property Control Act, Act 57 of 1988.(the “Act”) provides that a trustee shall in the performance of his / her duties and in the exercise of his / her powers act with the care, diligence and skill which can reasonably be expected of a person who manages the affairs of another.

Converting debt to equity is a common occurrence in the business sector and entails the conversion of an existing loan to equity. Such conversion increases solvency and liquidity position of a company and improves the potential to raise further funding should it be required.

When immovable property is sold, the questions that will in all likelihood first arise are: whether Transfer Duty or VAT will be payable on the transfer; and should VAT be payable, whether it will qualify as a zero-rated taxable supply.