Statutory tax services for individuals and corporate entities:
Personal Income Tax Returns and advisory
Administration of individual tax returns is efficiently managed by SARS E-Filing and many taxpayers submit their own annual and provisional tax returns. However, this may become a challenging undertaking once the taxpayer is encountered with complex income tax requirements and tax administration laws during the process.
This is where our tax expertise meets the tax deficiencies of the taxpayers, our clients.
Our specialised tax consulting for individuals is offered to all South African tax residents, as well as to non-residents and expatriates, and in addition consists of the following statutory services:
We offer personalised tax consulting sessions to address and solve the relevant tax concerns of the taxpayer, at competitive customised rates.
Corporate Income Tax Returns and advisory
Many companies rely on their accountants, or auditors for provision of tax services. Section 93 (3) of the Companies Act No 71 of 2011, states that “An auditor appointed by a company may not perform any services for that company—that would place the auditor in a conflict of interest as prescribed or determined by the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors in terms of section 44(6) of the Auditing Profession Act;”
Using external tax professionals in such cases is highly recommended to eliminate the self-review threat.
Our corporate clients benefit from the full tax reviews, based on their Annual Financial Statements (AFS), which may not completely represent the tax position of the entity and in such cases SARS is entitled to impose penalties of up to 200% for non-compliance.
We offer a full range tax consultancy to our SME clients and the following statutory services:
Employees’ tax (PAYE), remuneration, benefits and tax directives
Employers often provide additional benefits to their employees, such as transport allowance, free, or cheap meals, or accommodation, debt etc. without realising that these may be subject to income tax.
We review the employees’ remuneration packages and advise on how to supplement a tax benefit, or reduce the employees’ tax obligation. In addition to this, we review all complementary benefits offered by the employer to the employees, and not being subject to inclusion in their remuneration.
It is extremely important that the employer discloses correctly the employees’ remuneration on their IRP5 certificates and to use accurate and applicable income and deductions source codes. An incorrect source code may impact the employee in an adverse tax manner. We review and reconcile the payroll before the annual submission to SARS, and advise of any amendments, or adjustments to be made.
In addition we perform the following statutory services on behalf of employers:
Our tax legislation provides for any bona fide scholarships and bursaries to be exempt from income tax in the hands of the taxpayers, subjects to certain additional requirements.
Many taxpayers and employers are not aware of this section in the Income Tax Act, or are unfavourable to offer it to their employees, because of not adequate knowledge of its application, or doubting that SARS may challenge it.
We review and establish the appropriate taxpayers, who can benefit from the scholarship tax exemption, and advise and guide the employers on the implementation process.
We offer to concerned taxpayers a full range of tax consulting and compliance services for all indirect and withholding tax:
We also assist taxpayers in Securities Transfer Tax (STT) and Transfer Duty (TD) compliance.
The Tax Administration Act allows for an aggrieved taxpayer to object against SARS decision, or assessment. These include Income Tax Assessments for individuals and companies, VAT assessments; decisions not remit penalties, decisions not to allow late objections and/or appeals, etc.
When raising an objection, or appeal, the taxpayers have to comply with certain timelines and procedures prescribed by the Tax Administration Act.
We review the taxpayer’s assessment and related documents and advise on the merits of an objection, and we have 100% success rate in objecting and/or appealing to SARS in favour of taxpayers.
Voluntary Disclosure Programme (VDP)
The VDP is administered under the Tax Administration Act with effect from 1 October 2012 and its purpose is to enhance voluntary compliance in the interest of good management of the tax system and the best use of SARS resources.
The VDP aims to encourage both individual and corporate taxpayers to come forward on a voluntary basis to regularise their tax affairs with SARS and avoid the imposition of understatement penalties and other administrative penalties and it is applicable to all taxes administered by SARS, excluding Customs and Excise.
Taxpayers can achieve considerable saving in penalties and interest, as well as a possible criminal prosecution through a VDP disclosure.
We pedantically evaluate the taxpayers’ enquiry concerning an application for a VDP and advise if the taxpayer qualifies for a VDP.
We successfully apply on taxpayers’ behalf for a VDP.
As Master Tax Practitioners we provide tax opinions on the application of relevant tax laws. The tax opinions function not only as a valuable guidance, but also where reliance is placed on such, a protection for the taxpayer against a corrective action by SARS.
We compile tax opinions on various tax matters.