Internet entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth today lost R250 million\u201a when the Constitutional Court found against him in his battle against the taxman.<\/p>\n
The SA Reserve Bank argued that it should not repay Shuttleworth the money \u2013an exit levy it charged him when he transferred his assets out of South Africa to the Isle of Man in 2009.<\/p>\n
The levy was 10% of the value of the assets he wanted to export.<\/p>\n
He paid the levy under protest and took the matter to court. He lost in the High Court in Pretoria. However\u201a the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) ruled that the bank should not have imposed the levy and ordered it to repay Shuttleworth.<\/p>\n
\u201cMain appeal upheld\u201a SCA decision set aside. Cross appeal is dismissed. Shuttleworth loses\u201a\u201d Business Day law and constitution writer Franny Rabkin tweeted from the Constitutional Court.<\/p>\n
The court found the dominant purpose of exit charge was not to raise revenue\u201a but to regulate conduct\u201a she wrote.<\/p>\n
Explaining his court battle when he took his case to the courts\u201a Shuttleworth said\u201a \u201cExchange controls may appear to be targeted at a very small number of South Africans but their consequences are significant for all of us: especially those who are building relationships across Southern Africa such as migrant workers and small businesses seeking to participate in the growth of our continent\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is more expensive to work across South African borders than almost anywhere else on Earth\u201a purely because the framework of exchange controls creates a cartel of banks authorized to act as the agents of the Reserve Bank in currency matters.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all pay a very high price for that cartel\u201a and derive no real benefit in currency stability or security for that cost.<\/p>\n
\u201cBanks profit from exchange controls\u201a but our economy is stifled\u201a and the most vulnerable suffer most of all. Everything you buy is more expensive\u201a South Africans are less globally competitive\u201a and cross-border labourers\u201a already vulnerable\u201a pay the highest price of all \u2013 a shame we should work to address.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shuttleworth first made headlines 15 years ago when he sold his company\u201a Thawte\u201a which he had built from a garage in Cape Town\u201a to US conglomerate Verisign for $575-million. In 2002\u201a he spent $20-million to join the Russian space programme as a cosmonaut\u201a training for a year before blasting off from a launch-pad in Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n
He was the first African in orbit and the world\u2019s second paying visitor to space.<\/p>\n
When he won in the appellate division\u201a Shuttleworth had pledged to put the funds of R250m plus interest into a trust\u201a to underwrite Constitutional Court cases \u201con behalf of those whose circumstances deny them the ability to be heard where the counterparty is the State\u201d.<\/p>\n
Shuttleworth, SARB fight heads to Con Court<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Mark Shuttleworth\u2019s court case can devastate South Africa: SARB<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Shuttleworth to give R250 million away<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Shuttleworth scores R250 million in legal battle<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n