JULY 2010INTRODUCTION From
the popular financial press, it appears that we have entered, not
spring, but what journalists refer to as the strike season.
Strikes are detrimental enough to our reputation as an investment
destination without our press drawing attention to the fact that
we have a season for this economic upheaval. TECHNOLOGY In
Excel, in edit mode, to make a portion of a formula absolute, use
the F4 key. E.g., if, in the formula A1*B2, you wish the B2 to
remain unchanged when copying the formula to other cells, place
the cursor either before or after the B and press F4. The formula
will then becomes A1*$B$2. If you need only the row number to
remain constant, pressing F4 again will change the formula to
A1*$B2. Pressing the F4 key once more will remove all absolute
references. When not in edit mode, the F4 key may be used to
repeat formatting. E.g., Supposing that you have formatted a cell
to yield a number displaying two decimal places. In the next cell,
the number is shown with no decimal places. Place the cursor over
that cell and press F4. The number will now be shown with two
decimal places. TAXATION Provisional
Tax
The
recently announced changes to the provisional tax system left many
taxpayers confused. The letters distributed by SARS seemed to
infer that unless you have a liability to actually pay provisional
tax you do not have to submit a return. Therefore, in terms of
that inference, if you qualify as a provisional taxpayer but your
estimate indicates that no tax will be payable at the end of
August or February, you do not have to submit a return. This is
totally incorrect. There has been no change to the law, which
states that all persons who qualify as a provisional taxpayers
must submit an estimate in a form acceptable to the Commissioner.
Therefore, one needs to determine whether one is a provisional
taxpayer. According to the Act, any person who derives income
other than from remuneration, as defined, is required to register
as a provisional taxpayer. The exceptions to that rule are:
We
have advised all those clients for whom we have a current email
address of this fact. Copies of that communication will be posted
on our web site, www.accounting4.co.za. First
bi-annual Employees’ Tax Reconciliation
Employers
are reminded that the first Employees’ Tax Reconciliation must
be prepared to reflect all payroll transactions for the half-year
to 31 August 2010 for submission on a date to be announced. That
date is likely to be during September 2010. The IRP5 certificates
will not be distributed to employees but it will be necessary to
prepare and submit them to SARS with the half-year reconciliation.
SARS will use the information on those certificates to verify the
demographic data of the employee against the information held on
its database. It is imperative that employers ensure that this
data is correct before the certificates are submitted. The
employer as confirmation of the employee’s particulars must
retain evidence, similar to that required for FICA compliance. It
may be requested by SARS as proof of the information displayed on
the IRP5. If an employee is not registered for tax, SARS will
issue a tax number to him/her and advise the employer accordingly.
On
those certificates there will be no necessity to split the tax
withheld between SITE and PAYE except where an employee ceased
service with you during the period. With that exception, all tax
deducted will be recorded against code 4102. Where
an employee left your employment during the period, the calendar
month that forms part of the tax certificate number will be
recorded as 02. Voluntary
Disclosure Relief
During
the budget speech, the Minister announced a limited form of
amnesty. The application may be lodged during a period of twelve
months commencing 1 November 2010. Applicants will be required to
make complete disclosure of any infringement of the acts
administered by the Commissioner of Inland Revenue that occurred
at least twelve months prior to 1 November 2010. Provided the
applicant is unaware of any audit or investigation that has
commenced or is proposed, penalties and interest that existed
immediately prior to the application will be remitted in full. If
an audit or investigation has commenced and the Commissioner is
satisfied that the infringement would not have been detected by
the audit or investigation the applicable penalties may be
remitted by 50%. However, any actual tax that has been evaded will
have to be paid. The bill, which incorporates this scheme has
still to be passed into law, also provides for an agreement to be
reached that includes payment terms. DEADLINES Promotion
of Access to Information Act- 31 December 2011 When the Act was originally promulgated in 2005, we assisted existing clients in the preparation of the manual that the Act requires to be submitted by all entities to the Human Rights Commission. Since that time, the composition of our client base has changed and it is possible that some clients have not complied with this requirement. Should you be in doubt as to your compliance, you are urged to contact one of our consultants. Annual
Duty – end of the month following incorporation date Consumer
Protection Act – October 2010 New
Companies Act – no new CC registrations – approx. last
quarter of 2010 Income
Tax Returns – all taxpayers:
Postal submissions, i.e., hardcopy tax returns – 30 September
2010 Income
Tax Returns – non-provisional
taxpayers: Electronic submissions
– 26 November 2010 Income
Tax Returns - provisional
taxpayers: Electronic submissions – 31 January 2011 NB:
The term “taxpayer” includes individuals, companies, close
corporations, individuals and all taxable entities ECONOMY A recent radio report referred to the fact that overseas investors, when choosing a country in which to establish their businesses, look for a number of factors. One of the most important is productivity. Productivity is the amount of output one can expect for the amount of pay expended. Unfortunately, South Africa cannot compete with the likes of China and India. Our wages are far too high and many of our workforce are unproductive. This is particularly true of big business, government and parastatals where the employee merely go to the office and not to work! The impact of recent wage negotiations is apparent in the rise in the Producer Price Index that measures the increased cost of production. Whilst the CPI continues to fall and, hopefully, encourage the SARB to reduce the repo rate before the end of the year, increases in the PPI do not auger well for such a reduction. Those involved in wage negotiations should ask themselves whether increases above the inflation rate are justified in the light of their constituents’ contribution to the economic well being of the country. BUSINESS Human Resources An
item that is omitted from the financial statements of small
businesses is human resources. And yet, without those resources,
no business can survive. Therefore, it is surprising that few
small businesses evaluate the impact, both positive and negative,
that personnel may have on the bottom line. Staff
turnover, if prolific, can have an extremely adverse effect on net
profits. Consider the employee who continually interrupts others
in the performance of their duties and those that, through their
continual negative remarks, cause other workers to adopt a
negative view of the organisation and its objectives. The loss of
such a person, whilst inflating the staff turnover rate, may have
a positive impact on productivity. Adversely, the demotivation and
thereby the loss, through whatever means, of an employee, who
continually contributes more effort than that for which he or she
is remunerated and who always puts the interests of the
organisation above his or her own, will also inflate the staff
turnover rate. However, in those circumstances, the result,
inevitably, will result in increased training costs that, in the
long term, are the cost of an increase in staff turnover. Recruitment
also plays a significant factor in staff turnover. The recruitment
of staff, particularly those required to perform functions in a
specialised field such as accounting, cannot be left to someone
with a little or no knowledge in that field. It may cost a little
more to ensure that someone with the requisite skills oversees the
entire recruitment process, but, in the long term, the money spent
in obtaining the right candidate for the position is what
contributes to the bottom line. TAILPIECE “Never
look down on anybody unless you’re helping him up.” (Rev.
Jesse Jackson) |
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