BDO picks Schneider as head of tax in South Africa

International Tax Review is part of Legal Benchmarking Limited, 1-2 Paris Garden, London, SE1 8ND

Copyright © Legal Benchmarking Limited and its affiliated companies 2025

Accessibility | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Modern Slavery Statement

BDO picks Schneider as head of tax in South Africa

ferdieschneider100.jpg

Ferdie Schneider will join BDO South Africa as head of tax on July 1.

He was a partner of KPMG from March 2005 until now, specialising in VAT. Before that, he was a partner of Deloitte for more than six years. Between January 1990 and December 1996, he worked in government, first as chief taxation officer of the South African Revenue Service (SARS) and then as senior economist in the National Treasury of South Africa.

In the 1990s, Schneider was a member of a government committee on VAT in financial services, which resulted in a widening of the South African VAT net, and in 2010 was a founder, with SARS, of a VAT credit retail focus group, which investigated the VAT implications in that specific sector, looking specifically at VAT apportionment and issues such as securitisation and direct attribution.

He is a member of the insurance VAT committee which is looking into the VAT issues in the insurance industry. He has also worked on VAT legislative changes requiring foreign electronic service providers to register for SA VAT purposes where the law deems consumption to take place in SA.

more across site & shared bottom lb ros

More from across our site

Tax professionals are still going to be needed, but AI will make it easier for them than starting from zero, EY’s global tax disputes leader Luis Coronado tells ITR
AI and assisting clients with navigating global tax reform contributed to the uptick in turnover, the firm said
In a post on X, Scott Bessent urged dissenting countries to the US/OECD side-by-side arrangement to ‘join the consensus’ to get a deal over the line
A new transatlantic firm under the name of Winston Taylor is expected to go live in May 2026 with more than 1,400 lawyers and 20 offices
As ITR’s exclusive data uncovers in-house dissatisfaction with case management, advisers cite Italy’s arcane tax rules
The new guidance is not meant to reflect a substantial change to UK law, but the requirement that tax advice is ‘likely to be correct’ imposes unrealistic expectations
Taylor Wessing, whose most recent UK revenues were £283.7m, would become part of a £1.23bn firm post combination
China and a clutch of EU nations have voiced dissent after Estonia shot down the US side-by-side deal; in other news, HMRC has awarded companies contracts to help close the tax gap
An EY survey of almost 2,000 tax leaders also found that only 49% of respondents feel ‘highly prepared’ to manage an anticipated surge of disputes
The international tax, audit and assurance firm recorded a 4% year-on-year increase in overall turnover to hit $11bn
Gift this article