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CMS lawyers can provide future-facing advice for your business across a variety of specialisms and industries, worldwide.

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Global Reach

Apart from offering expert legal consultancy for local jurisdictions, CMS partners up with you to effectively navigate the complexities of global business and legal environments.

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CMS South Africa
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Forward-thinking Tax strategy. Practical execution.

We are where you need us

As local and international tax rules become more complex, and compliance and reporting obligations more onerous, managing these requirements is a significant challenge.  CMS has a multidisciplinary team that monitor developments in tax law and policy which affect our client’s affairs.

We help in developing robust solutions that maximise tax effectiveness and can anticipate future regulatory developments. We will work with you to ensure on-going compliance in your structures and implement the transactions in the best and most compliant manner for our clients.

Our tax services are aimed at achieving the best outcomes for clients, whether they are a financial institution, multinational, fund, corporate investor or high - net worth individual. Our compliance advice is commercial, balanced, cautious, but practical.

Our teams work together across all sectors and assist with taxes affecting your business including income tax, VAT, tax structuring and tax disputes.

If you are involved in a dispute, an early intervention with the tax authorities on your behalf can ensure the best outcome for your business.

Tax & Advisory Services

We solve your challenges and create solutions for:

  • drafting advance tax rulings and submitting the necessary applications
  • employee share incentive schemes and other remunerative structures
  • donations tax
  • exchange control
  • financing and re-financing advisory
  • international tax advisory
  • taxation principles in relation to financial instruments
  • tax dispute resolution
  • tax due diligence investigations
  • tax implications of structured finance
  • tax solutions for merger acquisitions, group re-organisations, group rationalisations and general corporate transactional work (including, asset disposals and acquisitions, corporate finance, corporate).

In addition to the above, we provide opinions and advice on the interaction between taxation, exchange control and the legal implementation of transactions. We also prepare applications to Authorised Dealers and the Financial Surveillance department of the South African Reserve Bank and are closely monitoring developments in the exchange control regime.

Private wealth

We can assist with:

  • advising on family business affairs & transactions
  • foreign trust funding
  • local & Foreign Trust advice

Financial Instruments

The team has experience with financial transactions, including analysing or developing financial instruments in a range of commercial scenarios.

Awards & Recognitions
01
  • Quote
    CMS RM Partners' team is recognised for corporate tax and disputes, with a strong weighting towards the financial services segment.
    Legal 500 | Tax, Tier 4, South Africa, 2020
  • Quote
    One of the more impressive tax-legal advisers in South Africa…my go-to corporate tax structuring teams
    Chambers & Partners, South Africa, Tax, 2020
  • Quote
    Experienced across a broad expanse of tax law matters, covering corporate restructurings, transactions, fund establishments and empowerment adjustments...
    Chambers & Partners, South Africa, Tax, 2021
  • Quote
    The group has a burgeoning private client-related practice, and is growing force in international structuring and disputes. It is engaged by both businesses and the tax authorities in tax disputes. It is increasingly active in the BEE segment and its membership of the firm's broader international network places it in a prime position for international work
    Legal 500, South Africa, Tax, 2021
  • Quote
    Diverse commercial experience
    Legal 500, South Africa, Tax, 2021
  • Quote
    CMS South Africa has good experience in relation to an R&D tax support scheme in South Africa in the hydrogen sector
    Legal 500, 2022
  • Quote
    The team’s strengths include good negotiation in good faith and in line with the client’s needs, active listening to the client, they make drastic changes on deliverables at the client’s demand without additional fees, and they are curious in learning about an innovative project in the hydrogen sector
    Legal 500, 2022

Events

  • South Africa
    03 Mar 2026

    IP Insights webinar series 2026

  • South Africa
    23 Mar 2026

    CMS at PTMG Spring 2026

  • South Africa
    08 Apr 2026

    CMS at Fordham IP & Policy Conference

  • South Africa
    21 Apr 2026

    On the Pulse webinar series 2026 - Spring

Local market knowledge. Global outlook

We provide future-facing legal advice to help your organisation thrive. Combining local market knowledge and a global perspective, and with lawyers in locations worldwide, your organisation benefits from the expertise it needs, even across borders.

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