Honest taxpayers, particularly those struggling to get legitimate refunds out of SARS whilst its fraud prevention systems grind along slowly, will hope that potential tax cheats take fright at the stiff sentences handed down recently to three company directors. They were convicted of submitting 198 fraudulent VAT returns over a 3 year period, involving […]
When Crime Doesn’t Pay: VAT Fraudsters Behind Bars for 25 Years Read More »
A recent World Bank and Price Waterhouse Coopers survey, amongst other things, ranks companies in 190 countries in terms of time taken to prepare and file tax returns. South Africa performs above average against its global peers. We improved by one place from 47th last year to 46th. The survey has been going since 2004
How Efficient is SARS Globally? Read More »
Nothing is more demoralising than running into financial difficulties. Suddenly all your energies are focussed on survival rather than growing the business. The fun goes out of the organisation, rumours of retrenchment flourish and if management aren’t careful, the rumours can become self-fulfilling. The importance of liquidity and solvency ratios Since the “new” Companies Act
Directors: Watch Your Liquidity and Solvency! Read More »
SARS recently issued a draft Tax Bill which proposed taxing South African residents the difference in taxation on offshore income earned. Thus, if 10% tax was paid on overseas income then the taxpayer was liable to pay what would have been due in terms of local Income Tax law (the maximum income tax rate here
Tax on Offshore Income – A Change in Plan Read More »
Access to the Special Voluntary Disclosure Program (SVDP) closed at the end of August 2017 and the government netted a little over R1 billion. There were two thousand applications for this amnesty. Whilst this is not the final amount as SDVP applications are still being processed, there is little doubt that National Treasury was expecting
The Latest on the SVDP Read More »
Every year we report on the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Competitiveness Index. This year South Africa slipped from 48th to 61st in the rankings. What was disappointing is that previously we were ranked 3rd in terms of corporate efficacy but this year fell to 34th. The audit profession had been ranked top for several
Disappointing – SA Slips Down the World Competitive Index Read More »
“Leadership involves finding a parade and getting in front of it” (John Naisbitt, futurist and author of ‘Megatrends’) A recent survey identified three major trends for the next five years – Multinationals get stronger If one were to take the top 100 economies in the world and include multinationals (MNs), then 69 of the top
3 Future ‘People’ Trends – Be Prepared Read More »
“Crying wolf is a real danger” (David Attenborough) POPI (the Protection of Personal Information Act) will provide welcome protection for our personal information – our names, ID numbers, addresses, medical histories and so on. But the other side of the coin is that it will expose small businesses in particular to a whole new raft
Small Businesses and POPI: Not Crying Wolf This Time? Read More »
“Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It’s the transition that’s troublesome” (Isaac Asimov) If you don’t want to be kept artificially alive – without your consent and perhaps in pain and distress – long after your medical condition becomes hopeless, you need to communicate your decision now to the doctors, hospitals and loved ones who
Do You Need an “Advance Directive” or a “Living Will”? Read More »
“Let’s choose executors and talk of wills” (Shakespeare) If you haven’t made your will yet, get it done now. Why is that so important and how should you go about it? To answer that let’s debunk a few of the more pervasive myths and misconceptions around those questions – “I’m too young to need a
7 Myths About Making a Will Read More »
