The new duties most recently imposed on trustees not only involve substantially more administration than ever before, but also entail impossible deadlines and hefty penalties. These additional duties arise from legislative changes following South Africa’s grey listing by the global financial watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force, as well as new requirements from SARS.

As a result, all trustees of all trusts now have new levels of administrative duties, with some of the impossible deadlines having already passed, exposing all trustees to harsh penalties including fines of up to R10 million or imprisonment for up to 5 years, or both. This makes it crucial for trustees to seek professional assistance going forward in attending to their duties as trustees. 

When starting a new business and in running an established business, every opportunity can seem to be the difference between success and failure and every new client is viewed as a step closer to the ultimate goal of profit and self-fulfilment. The truth is nothing is ever completely black or white and nowhere is this more obvious than in business.

Knowing how to recognise a bad opportunity or when to turn down a good one is as important as any other aspect of your business. Choosing to take on an opportunity, which may not be right for your business can severely limit your future and foster unhappiness among staff, while making these calls correctly will help you to better define your brand and strengthen your business. Here’s how to recognise it’s time to say “no” to an opportunity.

The existing research and development (R&D) tax incentive for South African companies will be extended for 10 years from January 2024 and will be refined to make it simpler and more effective, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana announced earlier this year. This provides local businesses with both opportunity and time to derive optimal benefits from this incentive, which offers both a rebate of 150% of R&D expenditure and accelerated depreciation of R&D equipment.

In this article, we unpack what the incentive aims to achieve and what it offers, how businesses can determine whether this research and development tax incentive applies to them, what the terms and conditions entail, and how to ensure your business can benefit while meeting all the requirements. 

• 7 June - Monthly Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) submissions and payments
  
  
• 29 June - Excise Duty payments
  
  
• 30 June – End of the 1st Financial Quarter
  
  
• 30 June - Value-Added Tax (VAT) electronic submissions and payments & CIT Provisional payments where applicable.