UCT Inaugural Lecture of Professor Shaun Parsons

The University of Cape Town invites you to an inaugural lecture by Professor Shaun Parsons

Topic: Technology and challenges to tax norms in the 21st Century: Crypto-assets and beyond

Crypto assets have been a disruptive force to established domestic and international tax systems whose foundational principles have remained largely intact for over 100 years. Proclaimed as “a system for electronic transactions without relying on trust”, the original crypto asset – Bitcoin - is “the monetary experiment of our time”. Comprising pseudonymous transactions on decentralised blockchains located largely outside the traditional financial system's regulatory framework, crypto assets have posed both theoretical and practical challenges for tax policymakers.

Has it indeed proven difficult to apply traditional principles and precepts of taxation to crypto assets, and if so, why? How have both the complexities and the responses developed since the emergence of Bitcoin in 2009? And what can we learn about our tax systems as they continue to grapple with a rapidly-increasingly digitalised and borderless world?

The taxation of crypto assets has been Professor Parson’s main research area for more than 10 years. It is both a fertile topic for academic inquiry in its own right and a test case for the principles of tax policy design in a world very different from the one in which they were formulated. This lecture will introduce crypto assets, highlight the underlying causes of tax complexity, outline some of the tax policy responses to date, and consider the implications for the future of tax policy in a digitalised world.

Date: Thursday, 13 August 2026

Time: 18:00 SAST

Venue: Mafeje Room, Bremner Building, Middle Campus

About our speaker

Professor Shaun Parsons is a professor in the College of Accounting at UCT, where he is the head of the Tax section and teaches postgraduate Taxation. He is also the co-ordinator of the College’s Scholarship portfolio. Professor Parsons holds a PhD in Taxation and an MCom (Taxation), as well as postgraduate diplomas in Accounting and Tax Law from UCT. He also completed an MPhil in Applied Theology from the University of Pretoria and is a Chartered Accountant (South Africa) and a registered tax practitioner. Before joining academia in 2010, he worked at a Big 4 accounting firm in Cape Town and London.

Professor Parson’s research focuses on the intersection of emerging technology with domestic and international tax systems. It seeks to assess the degree to which these technologies can be accommodated by existing tax systems designed primarily for a traditional “brick-and-mortar” economy. The impact of these technologies features prominently in some of the most significant international tax developments in recent years, including the OECD's BEPS Project, the introduction of digital service taxes (DSTs), the Pillar One and Pillar Two (now GloBE) proposals, and the Crypto Asset Reporting Framework (CARF).

His research began with the taxation of crypto assets and has expanded to encompass decentralised finance (DeFi), the use and impact of artificial intelligence in taxation, and cross-border remote work enabled by digital technology. This research has been published in leading international tax journals, such as the British Tax Review, the World Tax Journal, Intertax, and the Bulletin for International Taxation. Professor Parson’s PhD research was also published in the IBFD Doctoral Book Series.

In addition to teaching postgraduate Taxation, Professor Parson also teaches on the College of Accounting’s professional programmes, which prepare trainee-chartered accountants from universities across South Africa for their professional examinations. His chosen subject area has given him opportunities as an international guest speaker, conference panellist and presenter, journal and book reviewer, and external postgraduate supervisor. He has also been the chair of the Board of Trustees of the UCT Retirement Fund since 2024, and a trustee since 2020. The fund serves nearly 5,650 active members, and is among the top 100 funds in South Africa by asset value.