Is the Value-Added-Tax treatment for educational services still valid?Is zero-rating a better alternative to the current VAT treatment?Are there any other alternative VAT treatments available?

The aim of this dissertation is to analyse whether the current VAT treatment for educational institutions is still valid given the development within these institutions and if not, to identify alternative VAT treatments that may be used. Educational services are an exempt supply under section 12(h) of the VAT Act. The main reason for the exemption of educational services is that many of the institutions providing educational services were government institutions and to some extent financed by the government. However, over the years, the activities of institutions providing educational services have changed drastically and a reduced number of institutes are wholly subsidized in terms of government subsidies. In order to aid government grants and increase income, these institutions have increased their taxable activities considerably. Furthermore, privately owned and semi-subsidized institutions are accountable for their own costs and are not provided any or limited support from government. Numerous educational institutions within South Africa conduct an enterprise with the rendering of taxable supplies in addition to the provision of educational services. Such additional activities, provided the educational institute qualifies for and is VAT registered, are taxed at the standard rate. This in turn has created complications in administering the VAT Act, whereby these service providers are then required to carry out an apportionment calculation of VAT on their mixed supplies. This practice is inefficient and not cost effective. Furthermore, the ease of compliance, which was the basis in implementing the exemption, is diminished, as registration for VAT purposes is unavoidable. Educational institutions that render taxable supplies would be incurring inputs on associated costs. The effect of exempting educational services from the VAT net ultimately results in an increase in tuition fees as the burden of “hidden” or “trapped” cost is passed onto the student, as a result of the institution’s inability to claim a refund of the tax paid. As there is no recovery of input tax embedded in the price of exempt supplies, the cost of the tax included in the price must be borne by the entity that acquires the exempt supply and can only be recovered if the tax is passed on to customers. This is in effect contradictory to the initial intention of the government’s political and economic objective in respect of education, to ensure access to education to all on a non-discriminatory basis. As the objective and intention of the legislation towards exempting educational services is no longer satisfied, it must be reassessed and the treatment relating thereto re-examined. The first alternate VAT treatment recommended is for educational services to be zero rated, this will reduce the administrative burden most educational institutions currently face in terms of carrying out complex apportionment calculations and will keep with the original intention of the VATCOM. Furthermore educational institutions will have additional funding via the release of input tax credits which may potentially result in a reduction in the percentage increase in student fees in future periods the burden of the ‘hidden’ or ‘trapped cost’ will not be passed onto the student. Other VAT treatments recommended should zero-rating fail is to tax educational services at a reduced rate or include educational services as a welfare organization activity. Should the above-recommended VAT treatments not be feasible it is suggested that the current VAT treatment be improved by providing additional guidance on what supplies can be included as educational services

Experimental workflow for the creation of a non-conventional open source HBIM platform integrating metric data and stratigraphic analysis: the case study of the refectory of Santa Maria di Staffarda Abbey

L'abstract è presente nell'allegato / the abstract is in the attachmen

ANALISIS VERBA BERPREFIKS ÜBER- DAN UNTER- DALAM ARTIKEL BERBAHASA JERMAN

Di dalam bahasa Jerman verba memiliki makna yang berbeda jika ditambahkan prefiks. Terdapat tiga kelompok verba berprefiks. Kelompok pertama disebut trennbare Verben ‘verba yang dapat dipisah’. Kelompok kedua dikenal dengan istilah untrennbare Verben ‘verba yang tidak dapat dipisah’. Kelompok ketiga diberi nama trennbare und untrennbare Verben ‘verba yang dapat dipisah dan juga tidak dapat dipisah’. Yang dimaksud dengan trennbare und untrennbare Verben dalam penelitian ini adalah verba yang harus ditulis terpisah juga tidak terpisah sehingga memiliki makna yang berbeda serta disusun bersama prefiks durch-, über-, um-, unter-, wider-, wieder-. Akan tetapi penelitian ini dibatasi pada verba berprefiks über- dan unter- saja. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk: (1) Mendeskripsikan verba berprefiks über- dan unter- yang terdapat dalam artikel berbahasa Jerman, (2) Mendeskripsikan jenis kalimat yang berisi verba berprefiks über- dan unter- yang terdapat dalam sumber data. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian kualitatif dengan metode analisis deskriptif. Data dalam penelitian ini diambil dari majalah berbahasa Jerman Der Spiegel edisi Juni 2013. Dari hasil analisis data dapat diketahui bahwa: (1) Terdapat 50 verba berprefiks über- dan unter-, yang terdiri dari 33 verba berprefiks über- dan 17 verba berprefiks unter-. Akan tetapi, dari 50 verba berprefiks über- dan unter- yang ditemukan dalam sumber data, hanya terdapat sembilan verba berprefiks über- dan unter- yang merupakan trennbare und untrennbare Verben. (2) Terdapat verba berprefiks über- dan unter- dalam beberapa jenis kalimat, yakni dalam kalimat Indikativ ‘indikatif’, Konjunktiv ‘konjungtif’, Passiv ‘pasif’, serta Infinitiv mit zu ‘Infinitif dengan zu’. Berdasarkan hasil penelitian disarankan agar verba berprefiks yang merupakan trennbare und untrennbare Verben ‘verba yang dapat dipisah dan juga tidak dapat dipisah’ dapat diteliti lebih lanjut dengan sumber data dan prefiks yang berbeda

BUILDING ARCHAEOLOGY DOCUMENTATION AND ANALYSIS THROUGH OPEN SOURCE HBIM SOLUTIONS VIA NURBS MODELLING

The implementation of historical information within BIM (Building Information Modelling) platforms has experienced great development processes during last years, generating excellent studies based on Historic Building Information Modelling (Murphy et al., 2009; 2013). The HBIM developing growth is certainly explained due to advantages concerning the documentation step as well as monitoring operations for Cultural Heritage assets. In this sense, information concerning historical architectures can be extracted directly from walls and masonries and it is related to stratigraphic information derived from archaeological analysis: this kind of analysis is fundamental in order to comprehend the evolution of the construction site through the identification of layers due to modifications and actions (Parenti R., 2000). The inclusion of stratigraphic analysis inside a HBIM workflow could be an innovative point as far as the management and monitoring is concerned. This kind of documentation, that was not designed to be included inside a common BIM platform, could be collected coupled with digital metric information derived from metric surveys even if it is still considered an ongoing research field, especially since Cultural Heritage assets have no BIM standard classification. For this reason, the main goal of this research is to adapt the possibilities of open source solutions concerning BIM methodologies to building archaeology documentation and analysis exploring unconventional strategies and also overcoming 3D modelling limitations of BIM software with free form modeler based on NURBS algorithm (Oreni et al., 2014), developing a particular scan-to-BIM process that, owing to the used opens source solutions and algorithm, can be renamed scan-to-openBIM via NURBS

OPEN SOURCE HBIM FOR CULTURAL HERITAGE: A PROJECT PROPOSAL

Actual technologies are changing Cultural Heritage research, analysis, conservation and development ways, allowing new innovative approaches. The possibility of integrating Cultural Heritage data, like archaeological information, inside a three-dimensional environment system (like a Building Information Modelling) involve huge benefits for its management, monitoring and valorisation. Nowadays there are many commercial BIM solutions. However, these tools are thought and developed mostly for architecture design or technical installations. An example of better solution could be a dynamic and open platform that might consider Cultural Heritage needs as priority. Suitable solution for better and complete data usability and accessibility could be guaranteed by open source protocols. This choice would allow adapting software to Cultural Heritage needs and not the opposite, thus avoiding methodological stretches. This work will focus exactly on analysis and experimentations about specific characteristics of these kind of open source software (DBMS, CAD, Servers) applied to a Cultural Heritage example, in order to verifying their flexibility, reliability and then creating a dynamic HBIM open source prototype. Indeed, it might be a starting point for a future creation of a complete HBIM open source solution that we could adapt to others Cultural Heritage researches and analysis

from reality to parametric models of cultural heritage assets for hbim

Abstract. The ability of managing big amounts of metric information coming from a LiDAR survey and the ability to reproduce high quality 3D models from them are still vivid problems to solve. Is it possible to create detailed models, geometrically and metrically correct, without using a large amount (often redundant) of metric data, such as massive point clouds? Obviously yes, but there are several ways to create a fitting 3D model for a specific research. A good solution is given by NURBS based algorithms that ensure high details of modelling. However, NURBS models can't be used directly on BIM platforms, because they need to be parametrized. In this sense, a parametric model is based on real measurements but each object could be interpreted and approximated based on objective and subjective (critic) view and also based on LODs (levels of detail or development) concerning a particular analysis. This kind of modelling of Cultural Heritage assets, fundamental for HBIM creation, need to be correctly planned especially for classification and definition of its historical features connected to an informative system, because nowadays information and then the semantic dimension are a necessary key points towards documentation analysis. Established this brief introduction, this schematic work will focus on the analysis of FreeCAD open BIM software and Rhinoceros as NURBS 3D modeller for Cultural Heritage is concerned, and whether and how they could integrate their tools for the purpose of managing dynamic high detailed data for the creation of an HBIM platform.</p