The South Africa Revenue Service has published a recent judgment of the High Court concerning the application of GAAR in cases where the taxpayer was unaware of the impermissible avoidance arrangement. The case involved Absa Bank Ltd and its wholly owned subsidiary Absa Towers (Pty) Ltd (collectively referred to as Absa) and a controversy about whether or not an impermissible tax avoidance arrangement was conceived to evade a tax liability. Under the South African GAAR, an avoidance arrangement is generally an impermissible avoidance arrangement subject to the rules if its sole or main purpose was to obtain a tax benefit...