With the move to Cloud computing these old computers are becoming useful. Read More on the Business Soul Blog

Budget Speech 2014, presented under easing global economic pressure, but on the back of a weakening Rand South Africa have shown some economic stability and resilience over the last five years of global economic crisis. Read more

Employment Tax Incentive - South Africa

The growing trend in South Africa is of school and university leavers not been able to find jobs in the work place. The lack of skills is often a concern to many business owners. One might question the reality of the skills shortage with the amount of education and additional courses these individuals attend, but the perception is there. 

Once again the draft Employment Tax Incentive Bill has been tabled. The bill proposes tax relief to the employee. This is expected to pass on to the employer by reducing the effective cost to company, thus enabling companies to employ staff at a lower cost. 

The incentive is applicable to all new employees under the age of 25 and employed after the 31 October 2013. The expected date of promulgation is the 1st January 2014 but is likely to be effective 1st March 2014.

The incentive will run until 1st of January 2017. 

Government is hoping this incentive will improve the unemployment gap of youth. This is possibly a move to appease the masses of dissatisfied youth in South Africa. There are concerns that the incentive will not work, due to the lack of demand in the local economy. Is there enough growth in the private sector to allow for the expansion of jobs at the school leaving rate? Where the incentive could help, is by reducing the minimum wage as a cost to company, but then these employees are already below the PAYE threshhold and so the inventive will not help the masses in lower income brackets.

Private sector business will welcome the incentive to try and save on employee costs. Let us be hopeful that the Employment Tax Incentive will create a positive economic stimulus. One that allows the private sector to see scope to expand their employment base and to improve profitability.

Make use of this time to assess business budgets. Work out whether this incentive will give your business the scope to employ new young staff. Factor in the cost of skills development that will be needed. Will it give you the ability to expand business and increase your customer base?

Walking with Elephants

Who said an accountants life was boring. 

Yes we work all the time, but these days accountants can choose where we work from. (Me in the middle, hard at work)

I had the privilege of spending the week at Imiri Game Reserve, for a client's annual general meeting. 

The highlight of the time away was to ride the elephants! Yes you read it correctly. To stretch your legs over the back of this enormous beast is a feat of bravery or madness. Once we settled in, the peace that exuded from the elephant bull brought a tranquility and stillness to us. For sometime I did not speak and listened. Surprisingly the elephant was quiet even when it walked. A team member commented that we could not hear their footsteps.

This special moment made us treasure our environment, and that we don't have to stretch our legs like that too often.

There were special encounters with black rhino, which are part of a breeding program on Imiri. As we stroked the rough hides of the rhino's, they voiced their cause with dinosaur like groans. We paused to consider the plight of the rhino and whether we would ever have such an encounter or see the sturdy rhino like this again. They are powerful and yet need our care to survive.

Imiri Game Reserve was a special place with a unique experience, and I worked hard too...

Payroll Reconciliation

Are you having difficulty with preparing your EMP501 payroll reconciliation? Each year there are changes in the program. Are you confused and cannot get it to work the way you want? We wrote a blog in May 2013 EMP501 in four steps. Read through the tips again and see if you can make sense of the process.

If you are still battling to reconcile your payroll for SARS, you are welcome to Contact us.

We have a trained team of experts who are submitting EMP501 reconciliations regularly. They are experienced and friendly to deal with.

We run a monthly Payroll Outsourcing System, preparing payslips for clients; submitting monthly EMP201 returns to SARS; and assisting with payroll queries.

Our efficient Payroll Outsourcing System is keeping our clients and their staff happy and cared for.

Business Soul Cares - Ndabezinhle Creche Road

Business Soul Accounting recently posted a blog on Ndabezinhle Creche. In the last blog we mentioned the road that is looking dismal. We are coming up to summer here in South Africa. That means the rainy season will start soon. When the rains come, this road will be a swamp.

We are getting together on 29 September 2013, from about 11:30. With our spades and wheelbarrows we are going to try and fill up the road with building rubble collected. Once compacted down this will hopefully help to solve Ndabezinhle Creche's immediate problems and allow access to the school.

We would love you to join us, from Business Soul Cares, and the team from Crossways Church, to fix the road. Every bit helps. Please contact us at Business Soul Accounting and we will give you more details.

Provisional Tax 20141

Following on from our last blog on Provisional Tax. The next deadline for provisional tax is just around the corner.

How profitable is your business this year?

Preparing your provisional tax return is a good time to assess the profitability of your business. Ask the questions:

Is the business making a profit?

If your business is making a profit at the end of July 2013, this is a good sign for the year end results. Does the profit fall within the targets you have set? Consider the budget you have for the year and whether you are going to be able to maintain or improve your profits. Set new targets.

Is the business making a loss?

A loss in your income statement may be great for saving tax but a loss is not what you want. Rather make profits and save for the tax. One forced saving is paying provisional tax. Turn the loss into a profit by tackling the tough questions. What is causing the loss? Don't look at the obvious indicators e.g. fewer sales. Dig deeper. Why is income not covering your fixed costs? Are the markups on products correct to cover both fixed and variable costs? Is your marketing team performing? What expenses can be cut? What expenses need to increase to bring in more income? Now is a good time to turn the company around and work at making a profit for the year.

What is our strategy?

Use this time of preparing provisional tax as a strategy tool to assess profitability for the year. Correct your budgets and targets.

Your business can make profit