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Beyond the Corporate Veil a commentary on the approach of the South African Courts to the question of lifting the corporate veil, with particular reference to a tax-avoidance based structure in common use in South Africa at this time

"The Court of Appeal has declared that the formation of the respondent company and the agreement to take over the business of the appellant were a scheme "contrary to the true intent and meaning of the Companies Act". I know of no means of ascertaining what is the intent and meaning of the Companies...

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Main Author: Perrins, R H
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Commercial Law 2021
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access_status_str Open Access
author Perrins, R H
author_browse Perrins, R H
author_facet Perrins, R H
author_sort Perrins, R H
collection Thesis
description "The Court of Appeal has declared that the formation of the respondent company and the agreement to take over the business of the appellant were a scheme "contrary to the true intent and meaning of the Companies Act". I know of no means of ascertaining what is the intent and meaning of the Companies Act except by examining its provisions and finding what regulations it has imposed as a condition of trading with limited liability .... we have to interpret the law, not make it." Salomon v Salomon & Co Ltd, per Herschell, LJ. Thus the starting point of the court in this seminal case (which has been followed ever since in regard to corporate personality) was to interpret the law as they found it in the Act - if the formalities had been complied with a separate judicial person came into being: 2 "The Company is at law a different person altogether from the subscribers to the memorandum; and, although it may be that after incorporation the business is precisely the same as before, and the same persons are managers, and the same hands receive the profits company is not in law the agent of the subscribers or trustee for them".
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
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license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2021
publishDateRange 2021
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publisher Department of Commercial Law
publisherStr Department of Commercial Law
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spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/35410 Beyond the Corporate Veil a commentary on the approach of the South African Courts to the question of lifting the corporate veil, with particular reference to a tax-avoidance based structure in common use in South Africa at this time Perrins, R H commercial law "The Court of Appeal has declared that the formation of the respondent company and the agreement to take over the business of the appellant were a scheme "contrary to the true intent and meaning of the Companies Act". I know of no means of ascertaining what is the intent and meaning of the Companies Act except by examining its provisions and finding what regulations it has imposed as a condition of trading with limited liability .... we have to interpret the law, not make it." Salomon v Salomon & Co Ltd, per Herschell, LJ. Thus the starting point of the court in this seminal case (which has been followed ever since in regard to corporate personality) was to interpret the law as they found it in the Act - if the formalities had been complied with a separate judicial person came into being: 2 "The Company is at law a different person altogether from the subscribers to the memorandum; and, although it may be that after incorporation the business is precisely the same as before, and the same persons are managers, and the same hands receive the profits company is not in law the agent of the subscribers or trustee for them". 2021-11-30T17:54:42Z 2021-11-30T17:54:42Z 1994 2021-11-30T17:54:01Z Master Thesis Masters LLM http://hdl.handle.net/11427/35410 eng application/pdf Department of Commercial Law Faculty of Law
spellingShingle commercial law
Perrins, R H
Beyond the Corporate Veil a commentary on the approach of the South African Courts to the question of lifting the corporate veil, with particular reference to a tax-avoidance based structure in common use in South Africa at this time
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Beyond the Corporate Veil a commentary on the approach of the South African Courts to the question of lifting the corporate veil, with particular reference to a tax-avoidance based structure in common use in South Africa at this time
title_full Beyond the Corporate Veil a commentary on the approach of the South African Courts to the question of lifting the corporate veil, with particular reference to a tax-avoidance based structure in common use in South Africa at this time
title_fullStr Beyond the Corporate Veil a commentary on the approach of the South African Courts to the question of lifting the corporate veil, with particular reference to a tax-avoidance based structure in common use in South Africa at this time
title_full_unstemmed Beyond the Corporate Veil a commentary on the approach of the South African Courts to the question of lifting the corporate veil, with particular reference to a tax-avoidance based structure in common use in South Africa at this time
title_short Beyond the Corporate Veil a commentary on the approach of the South African Courts to the question of lifting the corporate veil, with particular reference to a tax-avoidance based structure in common use in South Africa at this time
title_sort beyond the corporate veil a commentary on the approach of the south african courts to the question of lifting the corporate veil with particular reference to a tax avoidance based structure in common use in south africa at this time
topic commercial law
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/35410
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