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Message: [QUOTE="Queen, post: 88062, member: 27"] A chunk of South Africa's VAT Act just got torched by the Western Cape High Court for handing tax powers to the wrong branch of government. Court guts executive tax authority [LIST] [*]Judge Matthew Francis ruled the delegation unconstitutional. [*]Parliament alone holds power over national tax rates. [*]Francis dismissed regulatory-purpose arguments as flimsy. [*]Lawmakers got 24 months to patch the legal defect. [/LIST] DA's legal fight pays off [LIST] [*]Helen Zille called it a win for parliamentary oversight. [*]Her party filed the challenge back in April last year. [*]Zille framed it as classic no-taxation-without-representation stuff. [*]Future VAT changes must go through proper legislative channels. [/LIST] What triggered the whole mess [LIST] [*]Enoch Godongwana announced a VAT hike starting 1 May. [*]Parliament passed fiscal proposals despite pushback from the DA. [*]Godongwana and SARS Commissioner Edward Kieswetter fought the case. [*]Their defense painted the power as fiscal management, not taxation. [/LIST] Francis dismantles the government's argument [LIST] [*]Setting a tax rate is no minor detail, per Francis. [*]His ruling called it a revenue-raising mechanism, full stop. [*]The Constitutional Court still needs to confirm the invalidation. [*]The current VAT rate stays until parliament rewrites the law. [/LIST] EFF claims vindication [LIST] [*]Sinawo Thambo said the ruling backed their long-held stance. [*]EFF had mounted its separate court challenge on the hike. [*]Their argument mirrored the no-representation, no-taxation principle. [*]The party pushed the same line in committee and in court. [/LIST] [/QUOTE]

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