National Treasury published the amended carbon offset regulations on 8 July 2021.
The main changes to the regulation include:
- Credits from projects (registered before 1 June 2019) will be eligible under the carbon offset allowance until 29 July 2023.
This is to align their eligibility with the carbon tax return deadline, after which these credits will no longer be eligible. Previously the date was 31 December 2022.
- Credits from National Registries - meaning a registry implemented by a party included in Annex B of the Kyoto Protocol- are also now eligible.
This means that the credits do not necessarily have to come from the Clean Development Mechanism, VERRA, or the Gold Standard Registry, but they can come from:
For example, from a French, or Swiss registry, provided the credits were issued by one of the prescribed carbon standards. To this effect, the “attestation of voluntary cancellation”, is now termed a “certificate of voluntary cancellation”.
- The regulations have also been amended to state the following: under Section 4(2):
A taxpayer may not receive the allowance in respect of an offset project in respect of which any allowance has been received in terms of Section 12L of the Income Tax Act, 1962.
Therefore, any credits from an offset project that has received a Section 12L benefit will not be eligible as an allowance.
Please click on this link to view the gazetted Carbon Offset Regulations (as amended):
http://www.cova-advisory.co.za/application/files/3516/2582/2124/2021-07-08_Carbon_Offset_Regulations_as_amended.pdf
Cova Advisory