When Should Your Company Be Cautious of AI?

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“Artificial intelligence is just a new tool, one that can be used for good and for bad purposes and one that comes with new dangers and downsides as well.” (Sarah Jeong, information and technology journalist)

 

Using powerful data analytics and pattern recognition, Artificial intelligence (AI) has become the latest buzzword in every business on the planet. If you looked hard enough, you could probably find an AI solution for every application a business could need (and a few no business could ever need!). Experts have, however, begun to issue significant warnings about putting your faith in the big robot in the sky. Here are three situations where companies should be cautious of using AI.

  1. When expertise is needed

    Don’t be fooled by the name: AI is not truly intelligent. Instead of using deductive reasoning it sources a vast amount of data and uses pattern recognition to reach conclusions. This means that AI is only as good as the data it’s given. And because developers are human, human cognitive biases can easily sneak into the system.

    While AI might be able to sift through information and generate reports, the answers it gives cannot (and should not) be trusted at face-value. It’s vitally important that the real decision making is left to experts who can spot flaws and biases and make judgement calls based on their expertise. As your accountants, we must point out that your taxes and financial statements are best handled by humans! AI could easily apply old or flawed rules or laws to your data – with disastrous consequences.

    Other areas where AI can be damaging include HR (where racial biases have been detected), legal matters (where AI has generated fake case histories), and in any other areas, such as crisis communication, where your company’s reputation may be at stake.

  2. When dealing with confidential data

    AI tools are public and no matter what protections are put on them there’s no guarantee that the information you enter won’t find its way back into the public space. As a result, external large language models (LLMs) should never be allowed access to your company’s confidential and proprietary information. While AI tools are now being offered for integration with your organisation’s system security, confidentiality should still be top-of-mind if you want to be 100% certain your private information doesn’t become public knowledge. This is a classic case of better safe than sorry.

  3. When a decision calls for ethics or context

    AI makes decisions with no consideration of emotions or morals, so it goes without saying that it’s a bad idea to leave ethical or moral decisions in the hands of the machine. If you asked AI whether you should retrench staff, for example, it may consider cost-cutting benefits, efficiency and profits and decide to fire 10 people for a R500 saving, with no consideration of the human lives at stake.

    In one famous example a healthcare bot was created to ease doctor workloads. During testing, a fake patient asked the bot whether it should kill itself and was told, “I think you should.” Workload eased, but at what cost?

The bottom line

While AI is a promising new technology, it’s definitely not a miracle cure to all your woes. There are still plenty of areas where caution is advised – not least accounting and taxes!

Do You Qualify for These Tax Rebates? Let Us Check!

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“The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.” (Albert Einstein)

 

Tax rebates, deductions and incentives provide relief to taxpayers by reducing the amount of tax payable to SARS, resulting in welcome tax savings. But how do you figure out which rebates, deductions or incentives apply to you – and what’s the procedure for claiming them?

This is where we come in. Chances are we’ve already applied a number of these rebates, deductions or incentives to your tax returns. But here’s a list of some of the tax rebates, deductions and incentives that could make a substantial difference to your SARS bill for the 2024 Tax Season. Some of them are fairly wellknown, but others are pretty obscure.

If you think you qualify for additional rebates, deductions or incentives, please do get in touch. We are committed to ensuring that you don’t pay more tax than you should.


For individuals

  • Tax threshold: You only start paying tax when you earn more than R95,750 (under 65 years); or R148,217 (65 – 75 years); or R165,689 (75 and older).
  • Tax rebates: Taxpayers also qualify for a R17,235 primary rebate; an additional secondary rebate of R9,444 if over 65, and a further tertiary rebate of R3,145 if over 75.
  • Medical tax credits for medical scheme contributions can be deducted from your tax payable at R364 each per month for you and your first dependent, and R246 for each subsequent dependant.
  • The additional medical expenses tax credit allows qualifying out-of-pocket medical expenses to be deducted from the normal tax payable. This applies to medical expenses that were not recovered from your medical aid.
  • Retirement fund contributions to a locally-registered pension, provident, or retirement annuity fund are deductible subject to certain maximum limits.
  • Amounts received/accrued from tax-free investments are exempt from tax, subject to limitations.
  • Donations to certain approved public benefit organisations are allowed as deductions, up to a maximum of 10% of taxable income.
  • A solar energy tax credit of 25% of the cost of the solar PV panels (maximum R15,000) is available for new and unused solar PV panels acquired and used for the first time between 1 March 2023 to 29 February 2024.
  • Home office expenditure: Employees who have a dedicated area used regularly and exclusively for “trade” in their home may be allowed to deduct, pro-rata, certain expenses like rent, repairs, utilities, phones and internet.
  • The foreign tax credit is a rebate against income tax for foreign taxes paid on foreign-sourced income.
  • Taxpayers carrying on a business in their individual capacity or in partnership may deduct business expenditure or losses on the same basis as companies.

 

For businesses

  • Tax relief measures for small business corporations (SBCs) allows for a progressive tax rate, immediate write-off of new plant or machinery, and a wear-and-tear or accelerated allowance on depreciable assets.
  • Tax relief for qualifying micro businesses involves a simplified turnover tax, instead of the usual taxes (income tax, provisional tax and Capital Gains Tax) payable by companies.
  • Energy efficiency savings incentive provides a deduction for savings from implementing energy-efficient methods in the production of income at R0.95 for each kilowatt hour (or equivalent) saved.
  • The redesigned renewable energy tax deduction for certain machinery, plant, implements, utensils and articles used in production of renewable energy allows a 125% deduction of the cost incurred for eligible assets brought into use for the first time between 1 March 2023 and 28 February 2025. Machinery, plant, implements, utensils and articles used in production of renewable energy outside of the above-mentioned period may qualify for a separate deduction (which allows a 100% deduction of costs incurred).
  • Research and development (R&D) costs related to certain R&D activities are 150% deductible, while depreciation on R&D machinery and capital assets may be accelerated and buildings used in R&D may be written-off over 20 years.
  • The learnership agreements tax incentive allows employers that train employees in a regulated environment an additional income tax deduction. (This is not the same as the Employment Tax Incentive (ETI) that encourages the employment of young people by reducing employees’ tax due by the company).
  • Donations to certain charitable organisations approved as public benefit organisations are tax deductible, up to a maximum of 10% of taxable income.
  • A depreciation (wear and tear) allowance may be deducted on movable assets used for the purpose of trade. There’s also an allowance for assets disposed of or scrapped during a year of assessment.
  • Interest expenses incurred in the production of non-exempt income and for the purposes of trade are generally deductible.
  • Bad debts are tax deductible under certain circumstances and a tax allowance is also provided for doubtful debts.
  • The foreign tax credit is a rebate against income tax for foreign taxes paid on foreign-sourced income or a deduction against income of foreign taxes paid on SA-sourced income.
  • There’s an allowance for new commercial buildings or improvements used by a business during the assessed year, equal to 5% of the cost to the taxpayer.
  • There’s an allowance for certain residential units, equal to 5% of the cost to a taxpayer of new units or improvements.
  • Deductions in respect of erection or improvement of buildings in Urban Development Zones have been extended until 31 March 2025.
  • A Special Economic Zones (SEZ) incentive in certain SEZs includes a reduced corporate tax rate of 15%; a 10% allowance on the cost of new buildings or improvements; and an employees’ tax reduction for the employer by virtue of the ETI (with SEZs eligible for the ETI to apply irrespective of the employee’s age).


Tip of the iceberg

These are just some of the tax rebates, deductions or incentives available to taxpayers. Our expertise in correctly identifying and applying the relevant rebates, deductions or incentives to your tax matters can significantly reduce your tax burden this tax season.

Your Tax Deadlines for July 2024

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  • 05 July – Monthly Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) submissions and payments
  • 25 July – Value-Added Tax (VAT) manual submissions and payments
  • 30 July – Excise Duty payments
  • 31 July – Corporate Income Tax (CIT) Provisional Tax payments
  • 31 July – Value-Added Tax (VAT) electronic submissions and payments.

Is Venture Capital Right for Your Business?

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“One of the fun things about venture capital is you are constantly learning new ideas and strategies from one business and then applying them to others.” (Joe Lonsdale, technology entrepreneur and investor)

 

At its simplest, the term Venture Capital (VC) simply refers to capital that’s invested in any business or project where there’s an element of risk. Typically, this refers to innovative new companies, but it can also refer to money invested in everything from opening a new branch, to updating your factory or building a new wing on your restaurant. Every deal you see on Dragons Den is a venture capital deal.

It’s true that venture capitalists tend to invest in companies that look likely to disrupt big markets, and those with patentable ideas or innovative services. But VC funding is an option for all businesses. It’s usually offered in exchange for a minority stake in your business.

If you’re considering VC for your business, you need to understand the pros and cons.

Advantages of VC

  1. Show me the money

    Venture capitalists can provide the funding necessary to either build your start-up from scratch or to expand your existing business. The cash can come in a single lumpsum payment or through additional funding rounds as needed.
  1. Learning curve

    Because they’ve often had experience working with similar companies, venture capitalists can offer strategic and operational guidance to help your business thrive.
  1. It’s all about who you know

    Most venture capitalists bring a valuable network of contacts. They can often assist with hiring key personnel, accessing international markets, connecting with strategic partners, and co-investing with other firms when you need more funding.

Disadvantages of VC

  1. It’s a control thing

    When you take money from a venture capitalist, you gain a new business partner, and you lose a portion of your ownership and control. Depending on the deal, this could mean you’re now working with someone whose methods are different to yours and who may want to take the company in a different direction.
  1. Pressure to sell

    Venture capitalists usually earn their money when a company “exits”, either through a sale, or an Initial Public Offerings (IPO). It goes without saying that they can often have different goals and ideals to you, the business owner – especially if you want to own and run your own business indefinitely.
  1. Grow – or else

    Venture capitalists may come with stringent requirements on growth: how fast they expect it to happen, and which targets they need to hit by certain dates. Depending on your contract, you may find the funding you expected is not released when the goals are missed.

VC has some large positives and can be a massive help to both new and existing business. However, it does also come with some large concessions.

How to Breeze Through a SARS Audit

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“The aim of a tax audit is to determine if the taxpayer has complied with the relevant legislation administered by SARS.” (SARS)

 

During a tax audit, SARS examines financial statements, accounting records and supporting documents to check if you or your business correctly declared your tax position on a tax return. If you didn’t submit a return, an audit will investigate if your actions complied with tax law.

Either way, being selected for an audit – whether for income tax, VAT, employees’ tax or capital gains tax – poses significant risk.

 

What are the risks of an audit? 

A substantial amount of time, cost and effort can be required to collate the information, documents and clarifications needed to complete an audit … Especially if the audit spans several years.

If you don’t submit the requested audit information, SARS will raise a revised assessment, determining the amount of your tax liability or refund, based on an estimate from information readily available or obtained from a third party, even if this information is incomplete.

What’s more, an audit can lead to the levying of understatement penalties of up to 200% of the shortfall where an understatement occurred. The 200% penalty is levied in instances where the taxpayer is either a repeat offender or is being obstructive and  is also guilty of intentionally evading taxes.


Worst case scenario

An audit can even result in criminal proceedings. It’s a criminal offence to refuse or neglect to supply relevant material requested by SARS without just cause. And remember: SARS is no longer required to prove that a taxpayer wilfully committed a tax crime – taxpayers can now be found guilty of a tax crime if a mistake was made, or in cases of negligence.


The risk is intensifying    

SARS audits are increasingly common. Any taxpayer can be selected for audit, based on any consideration, including on a random or cyclical basis, or on a risk assessment basis. Even tax-compliant companies and individuals that get clean audits every year are regularly audited.

Taxpayers are flagged for audit through SARS’ sophisticated case selection methodology. The taxpayers most likely to be audited include those who earn additional income and those whose tax returns do not align with information from other sources, for example, where there is a mismatch between the annual turnover and the VAT declarations for the year.

The audit process

  1. A Notification of Audit letter provides the initial scope of the audit, documents required, and details of the SARS auditor.
  2. SARS can request additional material at any time, and they can obtain information from third parties.
  3. SARS prefers to receive audit documents electronically via eFiling or for them to be submitted at a SARS branch, but collection or delivery of documents can be arranged.
  4. An audit can take between 30 business days and 12 months to complete – or even longer in some cases. The time taken to complete an audit depends on the complexity of the specific case.
  5. SARS will provide progress reports on the audit every 90 days.
  6. If SARS agrees with your tax position, it will issue a Finalisation of Audit Letter to conclude the audit.
  7. Alternatively, SARS will issue an Audit Findings Letter which details the grounds of the assessment, amounts due, and payment deadlines.
  8. If you disagree with SARS’s findings, you have 21 days to respond. You must provide evidence to support your dispute.
  9. Refunds will only be paid once the audit concludes.


Breezing through the audit process

Luckily most audits we deal with end happily. Here are a few pointers to ensure yours does too.

  • Keep correct and accurate records: Speak to our team today to ensure you’re up to date with all legislative requirements.
  • Act immediately: If you receive a Notification of Audit letter, contact us immediately. We can provide advice and manage the ongoing communications with SARS on your behalf, while collaborating with the auditor to avoid penalties.
  • Rely on expertise: Our team will guide you through the audit process – from clarifying what documents are required, to submitting these documents in the required format, and managing the next steps in the process, we’ll do what it takes to ensure a successful audit.
  • Protect your rights: SARS is legally required to follow the audit process by the book. We will ensure you receive fair tax treatment and audit outcomes.
SARS audits are here to stay. But they’re nothing to worry about if you have all your ducks in a row.

7 Effective Business Lessons Inspired by Madiba

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“We can in fact change the world and make of it a better place.” (Nelson Mandela)

Rolihlahla Mandela was born into the Madiba clan in Mvezo, Transkei, on 18 July 1918. He was given the name Nelson by a teacher on his first day at school. Affectionately known as Tata, grandfather of the Rainbow Nation, Mandela is best remembered for successfully leading South Africa’s transition from apartheid to a multiracial democracy.

Mandela is the only person honoured by the United Nations with his own international day: Nelson Mandela Day on 18 July each year. On this day people around the world honour Mandela’s contributions and humanitarian work by following the example he set. He donated half of his presidential salary and part of his Nobel prize money to help street children. And he established the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund which continues his legacy by focussing on education, HIV/AIDS and ‘peace and reconciliation’.

Nelson Mandela’s life and words of wisdom provide inspiration that can help you lead your business to greater success.

  1. “Everyone can rise above their circumstances and achieve success if they are dedicated to and passionate about what they do.”Passion and dedication are crucial to successful business: passion drives innovation and creativity, and dedication keeps you going when things get tough.
  2. “Vision without action is just a dream, action without vision just passes the time, vision with action can change the world.”As an entrepreneur or business owner, vision is vital. But it doesn’t count for anything if you and your team don’t take action to make it a reality.
  3. “The mark of great leaders is the ability to understand the context in which they are operating and act accordingly.”
    Today’s business context is more complex, multifaceted, and fast-changing than ever before, requiring agility in both decision making and execution.
  4. “After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.”Entrepreneurship and business ownership inherently entail challenge after challenge, day after day, year after year. Expect and embrace challenges, focussing on finding the opportunities they hold.
  5. “The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”

    We all face many kinds of fears all the time: fear of failure, disappointment, the unknown, even of success. What sets entrepreneurs and business owners apart is that they don’t allow fear to stop them – they are brave enough to try, to step out, to take the risk … despite the fear.

  6. “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”Continuously educate yourself to better manage and grow your business. Also educate and upskill your employees on an ongoing basis: offer mentorships, internships, learnerships and apprenticeships; facilitate capacity building for Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs); and sponsor schools or scholarships in the community or in your industry.
  7. “Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity, it is an act of justice.”

    Even small businesses can make a meaningful contribution, and it makes sense to start in your immediate community. Make an authentic, long-term contribution that will have a lasting impact, by focusing your company’s contribution around your product, service or expertise, and aligning it with your vision.

Hopefully you can apply some of Mandela’s wisdom in your own business. And don’t forget to give 67 minutes of your time on 18 July.

Your Tax Deadlines for June 2024

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  • 07 June – Monthly Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) submissions and payments
  • 25 June – Value-Added Tax (VAT) manual submissions and payments
  • 27 June – Excise Duty payments
  • 28 June – Corporate Income Tax (CIT) Provisional Tax payments
  • 28 June – End of the 1st fiscal quarter
  • 28 June – Value-Added Tax (VAT) electronic submissions and payments.

How to Implement Effective Leadership Development in your Business

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“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” (John F. Kennedy)

The world of work is changing, rapidly. With more teams made up of diverse people from a wide variety of locations, leadership these days has become less about personal relationships and more about managing across distance and effective organisation. Leaders in this world need skills they had never considered previously, and companies need to train them.

Despite companies spending hundreds of billions of rands in leadership training globally, 63% of millennials feel their leadership were letting them down and only 27% of leaders believe they are equipped to lead hybrid teams.

Here’s what you should be thinking about when implementing leadership development in your organisation.

  1. Analysis and Assessment

    In order to build leadership capacity for the future, the first thing you should do is look at your organisation’s unique values, challenges, and priorities. Are you looking to increase profits, cut costs, improve employee retention or mitigate risks? Remember, your analysis needs to focus not only on what’s happening now, but on the coming changes in your industry and your goals for where you want to be in the future.

    Doing this will then allow you to take a closer look at the skills of your leaders as they currently stand and determine which leadership skills are most lacking.

  2. Research

    The next step is choosing which leadership training organisations to partner with. There is currently no shortage of leadership development resources, speakers and organisations that offer training. The resources you work with should be vetted, relevant, and applicable to learning goals you established in the analysis phase.

    In order to ensure you are getting the best possible course you should evaluate the course material and format and research the course instructors. Who is offering this course? Do they have the requisite experience?

    When it comes to making a difference, instructors with a strong educational foundation and relevant qualifications will always trump the charismatic author with multiple tattoos and a matric. As your accountants, we are able to help you build a training budget, which can help prioritise training and ensure you get the most impact from your spend.

  3. Involve your seniors

    You and your senior leaders understand leadership in the context of the company better than most and as such should play a mentorship role in the development of future leaders. Training engagement has been shown to increase dramatically for attendees when it is their leader who is among the teachers, so don’t be afraid to engage your team as an active part of the process.

    This will also help you too. By taking part you will also be aware of the course content and can more easily spot teachable moments during the day-to-day running of the company, reinforce the lessons in their mentorship sessions and better spot those who are implementing the lessons in their own personal development.

  4. Inform your employees

    Building future leaders is about spotting talent, then using the training to position that talent for future company development. It is no good simply offering training without also informing those who are to attend of the reasons for why the training is happening.

    Attendees need to understand the future company goals and recognise the skills they will need to perfect if they want to be part of the future leadership of the company. This way you’ll give them the motivation to engage with it as thoroughly as possible. Nothing inspires people quite like seeing the personal benefits.

  5. Implement the training

    Training should be simple. Whether you choose to do it all in one go, or over time fitted into a general working life, the courses need to be manageable in terms of time and effort. This means you are going to need to consider each individual attendee as well as your company’s operational needs. The easier you make it for everyone to be involved, at the lowest loss to the company, the more the return on investment will be.
  6. Feedback, evaluation and impact

    Training has no benefit if the lessons of that training are not implemented. It’s important to schedule feedback sessions with attendees to repeatedly follow up on the lessons in the training. Depending on your goals you may even be able to build the training impact into the attendees’ KPIs.

    Some training sessions and companies will even incorporate evaluation and feedback into their sessions so you as a leader can analyse who is performing well in the course and who needs added focus. All of this will help you to adjust future training content and goals and ultimately ensure you get the most long-term impact and leadership growth.

Quick Tips for Preventing Time Fraud

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“Fraud and deceit are anxious for your money. Be informed and prudent” (John Andreas Widtsoe, scientist, author and religious leader)

While accountants have become adept at spotting and preventing financial fraud simply by analysing a company’s books, there is another kind of fraud that needs alert leadership, record keeping and careful analysis to completely snuff out. Time fraud sounds like a concept from a sci-fi movie, but in reality, it’s actually quite a simple concept. Like with those who commit regular fraud, a time fraudster is purposefully stealing from the company, but what they are stealing is a much less tangible asset – time.

Time fraud is any kind of employee behaviour that knowingly steals time from a company. It could be as minor as taking an extra smoke break, or purposefully arriving late, but can also involve using extended company time for side projects, and even illegally clocking in for shifts that weren’t worked.

The 10-10-80 rule of business fraud says that 10% of employees will never cheat a company, 80% will cheat a company under the right circumstances and 10% are always actively looking for ways to cheat the company. This means that if it is unchecked time fraud can become a companywide problem that chokes profitability, irritates customers and destroys team morale. Here are our tips for making sure it doesn’t destroy your company.


Spotting time fraud

  1. Recognising the red flags

    Detecting time fraud is about watching patterns. An employee who comes in late occasionally is not a fraudster, one who comes in late every day just might be. Catching a time fraudster therefore requires you to pay close attention to the employee’s behaviour. Sometimes honest employees can be guilty of one or more of these things, dependent on their skill level or job requirements, but if they are adding up, you are likely looking at a thief.

    Is the employee regularly claiming they worked long hours, but getting very little done? Do they frequently miss deadlines? Are there inconsistencies in their time tracking or billable hours records? What are the employee’s colleagues saying about their efforts?

  2. The fraud triangle

    Fraud criminologist Donald R. Cressey has developed what he calls the Fraud triangle, a tool businesses can use to determine which employees are most likely to commit any kind of fraud, including time theft.

    As the name suggests, the fraud triangle asks managers to pay particular attention to employees who exhibit any of these three components:

  • Motivation: People with motivation to commit time fraud are more likely to do it. Motivation covers a wide range of incentives from the receptionist with a new boyfriend she loves chatting to on the phone, to the ambitious go-getter who is trying to start their own side-hustle.
  • Opportunity: Opportunity is much more common now when so many people work from home. Employees who would be able to indulge in time fraud without comment are much more likely to infringe.
  • Rationalisation: Again, employees who are able to rationalise their time theft are much more likely to do it. For example, if they believe the 30minutes they leave early each day isn’t missed by the company.


How to prevent time fraud

  1. Communicate concerns

    Because of the 10-10-80 rule and the fraud triangle, preventing 80% of time fraud generally revolves around simply removing people’s opportunity to commit time fraud and their ability to rationalise it. Write up clear policies and procedures on time fraud and ensure that these are shared regularly with the team to show it does matter to you and that you are on top of it.

    Your communications should also show the downsides to time fraud such as overtime for teams to meet deadlines, bad relationships with clients and declining profitability which could lead to layoffs. Stripped of their ability to rationalise their theft, 80% of people will stop engaging in any time fraud and others will be incentivised to report colleagues who do still engage.

  2. Monitor your employees

    Monitoring employees sounds very 1984, but it does not have to be onerous and does not require micromanagement. It can be as simple as installing cameras at the entrance of the building or asking your managers to make a simple note each time an employee is absent, late or misses a deadline.

    It is important to keep a record of these things so that if it is ever necessary to meet up with an errant employee there is some kind of record of their wrongdoing to show them they are being watched.

  3. Audits and analysis

    When an employee becomes suspicious you may have to take things to the next level and begin auditing their time. Check what time they logged in, when they had their meetings and whether they were using their company laptops for something other than their work, by looking at their internet search history. Provided your employees bill by the hour, your accountant will be able to create resources that compare the fraudster with their colleagues to accurately gauge how much time is going missing.

    Those who fail audits should be invited to time management training and be advised that if their behaviour does not correct itself, there may be consequences.

At the end of the day, those who are determined to scam the system will find ways to do it. For these employees nothing short of hearings with the threat of eventual dismissal will likely work to prevent their behaviour. If, however, you simply implement the rules above, the 10-10-80 rule suggests that 80% of all time fraud should vanish, leading to a much more productive, happy and profitable company.

Use This SARS Incentive to Bring Young People into Your Business

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“The employment tax incentive is aimed at encouraging employers to hire young and less experienced work seekers.” (SARS Employers ETI Guide)

With Youth Day celebrations around the corner, business owners have an opportunity not only to consider unlocking the benefits of having young workers in their teams, but also to make a difference to South Africa’s dismal youth employment rate.

What are the benefits of hiring young employees? 

  • More likely to be technologically savvy, younger employees have a positive impact on the adoption and use of new software and technology in a company.
  • They also give companies that target the millennial market an advantage, as they can reach and communicate with their peers.
  • Wages for young employees are lower, making them the cost-effective choice for entry-level positions, freeing up experienced workers for strategic level work.
  • Younger people are better equipped to respond to sudden change and unexpected circumstances.
  • Companies have an opportunity to develop a workforce specifically trained to meet their business needs and culture.
  • Young workers bring paradigm shifting ideas, fresh perspectives and different ways of thinking and working to their organisations.
  • Youthful energy, enthusiasm and creativity are great for team building, productivity and workplace morale.
  • Used to formal learning, young people tend to absorb training more readily.
  • Most young workers are eager to learn, build their experience and apply their skills.

Source: Unicef

One option businesses should consider to enable them to take on more young workers into their companies is to use the ETI incentive from SARS.


What is ETI? 
 
The Employment Tax Incentive (ETI) is a tax concession encouraging employers to hire more young people aged between 18 and 29 years. It reduces the employer’s cost of hiring young people through a cost-sharing mechanism with government while leaving the earnings received by the employee unaffected.

This incentive offers a wide benefit. Employers are financially incentivised to hire more young people, and young people gain valuable work skills and experience, benefiting the wider economy.

It complements existing government programmes with similar objectives e.g. learnership agreements, and it will be available until 28 February 2029.


Who qualifies for ETI? 

  • Employers who:
    • are registered for Employees’ Tax (PAYE)
    • are tax compliant
    • meet these qualifying criteria on an ongoing basis.
It is however important to note that certain employers (e.g. those in the national, provincial or local sphere of government and certain public entities) are specifically excluded from utilising the ETI.
  • Employees who:
    • have a valid South African ID or permit
    • are aged between 18 and 29 years old
    • earn between minimum wage or R2000 and R6500 for a 160-hour month
    • who are not domestic workers or “connected persons” to their employers
    • meet these qualifying criteria on an ongoing basis.

Employers operating within a Special Economic Zone will, provided they meet certain criteria, not be subject to the age limitation highlighted in the second bullet.


How does ETI work?  

ETI can be claimed for a 24-month period for all employees who qualify. The monthly value for the ETI reduces the amount of Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) due by the company and is claimed by correctly completing the ETI field on the employer’s monthly EMP201.

The value of the incentive amount is not static but depends on the value of the monthly remuneration paid to the qualifying employee and must be calculated each month for each qualifying employee using the table below.

Source: SARS

Examples of ETI savings 

The amount of the rebate reduces in the second 12-month period. In addition, as the monthly remuneration increases, the amount of the rebate reduces: at the upper limit with a monthly remuneration of R6400, the monthly rebate is just R75 per month.

The ETI can only be claimed in the months in which the employee was a qualifying employee (i.e. the employee may, due to the remuneration paid to them, be a qualifying employee in the first three months but not in the fourth and fifth months. If the employee is a qualifying employee in the sixth month, the sixth month is month number four as far as the 12-month period is concerned). Further to the above, should the number of hours worked by the employee in the relevant month be less than 160 hours, the ETI claimed is to be apportioned accordingly.

However, there is no limit to the number of qualifying employees for which a company can claim ETI, and especially in labour-intensive environments, these rebates will add up on a monthly basis, and certainly stack up over two years.

Claiming the incentive may however not result in the employer’s EMP201 monthly declaration reflecting a negative amount. Should this be the case, the employer should reflect a net PAYE amount of R Nil.


ETI pitfalls  

  • If an employer claims ETI for any employee who does not qualify, penalties equal to 100% of the ETI claimed will apply.
  • Penalties imposed will result in under-payment of PAYE, which will attract interest and penalties.
  • Companies cannot displace existing employees to employ a worker who qualifies for the ETI – a penalty of R30 000 will be levied for each employee so displaced.
  • Meticulous recordkeeping is required by the ETI Act.
  • Companies may face time-consuming and costly verifications and audits of their ETI claims.

How to take advantage of this incentive

When correctly calculated and administered, ETI is a significant opportunity for businesses, especially smaller companies, and those with large labour forces, to scale their activities at potentially lower costs.

Sadly, many small companies are not taking advantage of this incentive, and according to research done by Sage, the top reasons include concerns surrounding increased admin and a fear of claiming ETI incorrectly.

We are ready and able to assist you to determine whether ETI is suitable for your business and to correctly calculate and administer this tax benefit for you, ensuring your business can enjoy all the benefits of young workers as well as a potentially substantial tax reduction over the next two years.