Hard Money - Financial Management & Accounting Services

09/12/2021

♠ SARS ♠

To the rest of the world, SARS means Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. The virus that causes COVID-19 is known as SARS-CoV-2.

In South Africa, we have a worse version of SARS. One that not only causes physical disease, through increased stress levels, poverty and unemployment, but also financial distress. It also contributes to crime, corruption and fraud.

That’s right. The South African Revenue Service.

There are many ways to fight this disease. Some legal, some not so legal. For those still worried about the corrupt police force enforcing the corrupt taxman’s corrupt laws, here are some legal ways for businesses and individuals to show SARS the middle finger.

1 – do NOT pay more monthly PAYE than you have to, for example to provide for tax on an annual bonus. Many people also like to receive a tax refund once a year. You only receive a refund if you lend your money to SARS, interest-free, for a year. One of these days, SARS may be unable to pay these refunds. Don’t give them your money until you really have to.

2 – do NOT overpay on provisional tax. See point 1 above. Make them wait till the end of the tax year. Sharpen your pencil on those initial estimates, both businesses and individuals.

3 – do NOT pay over company PAYE, VAT or income tax earlier than you have to.

4 – ALWAYS claim VAT (and other) refunds as soon as possible. Don’t wait till the day you normally submit your VAT return. When you have to pay, submit the day before. When you need to claim, submit weeks in advance.

5 – do NOT invoice in advance, until you are sure to receive your money from your customer. Invoicing early but being paid late means that VAT-registered businesses may pay over more VAT than they have to.

6 – search the web for more tax tips, or have a decent accountant look at your business or personal situation.

Let’s all do what we can to minimize the effect of this terrible disease on honest, hard-working South Africans, especially over the festive season. If only we could spray SARS with something…

Check out my personal finance book, Hard Money, on www.amazon.com/author/burning

Cheers.

10/05/2018

Bad news for millennials. https://www.moneyweb.co.za/mymoney/moneyweb-financial-planning/millennials-most-at-risk-of-poor-retirement-outcomes/ But all is not lost. https://books2read.com/u/m2ozOO

Amid job hopping and lack of preservation.

17/03/2018

"Hard Money - How to build wealth without winning the lottery," is winging its way to various distributors as I type. The book launches officially on Monday the 19th, and should appear on all good book sites - including Amazon - before the end of the week.

Hard Money by John West

08/02/2018

Coming soon. https://web.facebook.com/HardMoneyBook/

20/12/2017

Charlie Lee, the creator of the world's fifth-biggest cryptocurrency, decides to sell all of his own cryptocurrency and hold normal currency instead?

Surely this tells us something about the true worth of cryptocurrencies? And the faith their creators have in them?

Litecoin founder sells out, and Crypto Co gets regulator scrutiny.

28/08/2017

The South African Revenue Service (Sars) has made some concessions to assist taxpayers – who are fast running out of time – to disclose their undeclared offshore assets in time.

The deadline for the submissions to qualify for the Special Voluntary Disclosure Programme (SVDP) remains August 31, but taxpayers have been given more time to submit supporting documentation.

The SVDP was announced in the 2016 Budget Speech, and gives taxpayers a final opportunity to regularise their offshore tax affairs.

More here, courtesy of MoneyWeb - https://www.moneyweb.co.za/mymoney/moneyweb-tax/taxpayers-get-more-time-to-submit-details-on-undisclosed-foreign-assets/

Practitioners advise against waiting until the last minute.

02/08/2017

Possible misallocation and mismanagement of members’ pension/provident fund contributions

The Metal Industries Benefits Funds Administrators are currently struggling to clarify whether amounts paid over for members’ pension/provident funds were incorrectly allocated against risk cover which didn’t exist.

If this was, in fact, happening, then elderly members of the funds involved would have received smaller pensions than they should have. This might have been going on for years, and could potentially affect thousands of workers.

Let’s see whether MIBFA can explain the situation before I have to call in the ombudsmen and blow this wide open in the public arena.

04/07/2017

“Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.” P.J. O’Rourke

The 2017 South African tax season is now open. SARS – and the government – would like everyone to submit their tax returns as soon as possible, so that they can collect money and tighten up on their forecasts.

But really, why should we?

So they can hand our money over to their friends and family, finance lavish weddings, build exotic firepools, and buy more private jets and maybe some trains and submarines that don’t work?

Those of us who owe money to SARS – and let’s face it, this is the best way to do it, keep your own money in your own bank account until you absolutely have to hand it over – why should we pay them in advance?

They have shown absolutely no interest in properly managing the country’s finances. Quite the opposite, in fact.

So let’s all submit our tax returns at the last possible moment, as a silent (but effective and legal) protest against corruption. That’s 24 November 2017 for non-provisional taxpayers. And 31 January 2018 for provisional taxpayers.

Those of us who are due a refund – submit those returns to SARS as soon as possible, and get your money back before they blow it.

Let’s take our country back.

“People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.” Alan Moore

21/06/2017

Watch out for ABSA's new Personal Client Agreement. They tried to sneak it out yesterday, refusing to allow some online payments to go through until clients had accepted this new 7 page legal document. They withdrew it quickly, probably after receiving a flood of complaints. They are now trying to deny that it ever happened.

Amongst other points, the new document tries to give ABSA the right to choose which method they prefer to use when communicating with clients. So they can close or suspend client accounts, take money from them, move money around, then pop a piece of paper into South Africa's failing postal system and assume that clients will receive the letter 4 days later. Despite the fact that the client might have insisted on electronic communication.

Good one ABSA. Way to go.

24/03/2017

Parallelograms are cool too, though.