The Lategan Case: The Accrual Principle – Then and Now

In 1926, the landmark Lategan case was the first case to determine the meaning of the words “accrued to or in favour of” in the definition of gross income as defined in section 1 of the Income Tax Act. According to the decision in that case, income generally accrues to a person when that person is entitled to an amount (the timing rule), but the amount to which the taxpayer is entitled to must be valued to determine the value of the accrual to be included in gross income. The valuation of the accrual is determined by discounting the accrual to its present value at year end (and not the face value). The valuation part of the judgment was legislatively nullifi ed in 1990 with retrospective effect to 1962, and the face value of the amount to which the taxpayer is entitled is the amount that has accrued.The timing rule violates both the canons of equity and of convenience. The timing rule also causes undue hardship to taxpayers by taxing amounts before they have been received. It is submitted that it may be time to test the timing rule constitutionally. It is also submitted that the valuation rule would pass constitutional muster. However, as far as the retrospective legislative amendments in respect of the valuation of the accrual are concerned, it is further submitted that there is little chance of successfully challenging such legislative amendments.Keywords: Accrual, Canons of Taxation, “Due and Payable”, “Entitled to”, Income Tax Act, Retrospective Amendments, Timing Rule, Valuation Rul

Comparative Studies on Wine Grapes on Different Trellising Systems: I. Consumptive Water Use

A field trial involving four trellising systems viz.( a) Bush vines, (b) Perold,( c) Lengthened Perold, (d) 1,7 m Slanting trellis, showed differences of the utmost importance with regard to rooting densities, consumptive water use and the incidence of Botrytis rot. Soil physical conditions were dominant in determining root distribution patterns. The slanting trellis had significantlymore roots than the other systems. The consumptive water use, however, was not affected by amount of roots but mainly by the micro-climate. Contrary to expectation, the largest trellising system did not show the highest consumptive water use, but under the experimental conditions the bush vines had the fastest evapotranspiration rate. Average crop factors of 0,313; 0,260; 0,241 and 0,205 were found from bud burst to harvesting for bush vines, slanting trellis, lengthened Perold and Perold systems respectively. The high evapotranspiration rate of the bush vines is attributed to higher ambient air temperatures, more air movement as well as less shading of the soil surface than in the case of the slanting trellis.Crop factors varied according to soil moisture content, indicating the need to determine these parameters for specific irrigation frequencies. The low crop factors determined in this experiment emphasize the high water useefficiency of vineyards and stress the need to adopt existing crop factors to recent findings. Significant differences which cannot be attributed to micro-climate conditions occurred among trellising systems. Grape juice analyses, carried out throughout the growing season, indicated a relationship between total nitrogen and arginine status and Botrytis cinerea determined immediately prior to harvesting. More Botrytis rot was found at lower cropping levels. More investigations as to the relationship among the incidence of Botrytis rot, cropping level and nitrogen status of the plant are needed

Comparative Studies on Wine Grapes on Different Trellising Systems: II. Micro-climatic Studies, Grape Composition and Wine Quality

In a field experiment the micro-climate and grape composition of four trellising systems viz., (a) Bush vines, ( b) Perold system, (c) Lengthened Perold, and (d) Slanting trellis were investigated and compared. Significantly more air movement, higher bunch and ambient air temperature as well as higher soil temperatures at 200 mm depth were recorded in the bush vines compared to the lengthened Perold and slanting trellis. Bunch temperature differences among trellising systems became most pronounced at 12h00 to 14h00

Irrigation Systems - Their Role in Water Requirements and the Performance of Grapevines

Irrigation systems were evaluated in three major viticultural areas in South Africa as regards grapevine performance, must and wine quality and the saving of irrigation water. Furrow irrigation saved more than 50% on irrigation water compared to full surface flooding without affecting grape yield, pruning mass and must composition. The irrigation frequency, however, had to be adapted to the volume of soil wetted. Tricklers gave results comparable to that of furrows. In another viticultural region, tricklers saved 25-30% water and the vines yielded a more favourable sugar/acid ratio compared to micro-jets, sprinklers and flood irrigation. In a third trial on a compact silty soil, tricklers gave results similar to that of flooding. Grape yield was not affected by the irrigation system in any one of the trials. Crop factors to be used for irrigation planning and scheduling are presented

Magnetoplasmon excitations in an array of periodically modulated quantum wires

Motivated by the recent experiment of Hochgraefe et al., we have investigated the magnetoplasmon excitations in a periodic array of quantum wires with a periodic modulation along the wire direction. The equilibrium and dynamic properties of the system are treated self-consistently within the Thomas-Fermi-Dirac-von Weizsaecker approximation. A calculation of the dynamical response of the system to a far-infrared radiation field reveals a resonant anticrossing between the Kohn mode and a finite-wavevector longitudinal excitation which is induced by the density modulation along the wires. Our theoretical calculations are found to be in excellent agreement with experiment.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure

Integrated Assessment: A Learning Adventure And Growth Opportunity For Adult Learners

The Bachelor in Management and Leadership (BML) is a programme specifically designed for working adult learners in the field of management leadership. As part of their assessment, students have to complete a small research project, called the Major Piece of Work (MPW). The aim of this paper is to discuss the Major Piece of Work as a real example of integrated assessment in order to highlight the value of integrated assessment for adult learners. The first part of the paper comprises an explanation of the Major Piece of Work as an integrated assessment instrument, whilst the second part will focus on the results of a survey regarding the value of the Major Piece of Work highlighted by BML students

A Learnheuristic Approach to A Constrained Multi-Objective Portfolio Optimisation Problem

Multi-objective portfolio optimisation is a critical problem researched across various fields of study as it achieves the objective of maximising the expected return while minimising the risk of a given portfolio at the same time. However, many studies fail to include realistic constraints in the model, which limits practical trading strategies. This study introduces realistic constraints, such as transaction and holding costs, into an optimisation model. Due to the non-convex nature of this problem, metaheuristic algorithms, such as NSGA-II, R-NSGA-II, NSGA-III and U-NSGA-III, will play a vital role in solving the problem. Furthermore, a learnheuristic approach is taken as surrogate models enhance the metaheuristics employed. These algorithms are then compared to the baseline metaheuristic algorithms, which solve a constrained, multi-objective optimisation problem without using learnheuristics. The results of this study show that, despite taking significantly longer to run to completion, the learnheuristic algorithms outperform the baseline algorithms in terms of hypervolume and rate of convergence. Furthermore, the backtesting results indicate that utilising learnheuristics to generate weights for asset allocation leads to a lower risk percentage, higher expected return and higher Sharpe ratio than backtesting without using learnheuristics. This leads us to conclude that using learnheuristics to solve a constrained, multi-objective portfolio optimisation problem produces superior and preferable results than solving the problem without using learnheuristics