For many businesses in South Africa, its that time of year again – the financial year end. The reason for this is mainly because it’s also the end of the income tax year for individuals and many other tax-paying entities.
We have found that, and certainly for many small businesses, this time of the year tends to fly by with not much attention paid to it, until – and this is quite important, the accountants want all sorts of things done to enable them to carry out their duties efficiently and economically. Given the fact that accounting and tax practitioners now have to adhere to much stricter deadlines from the South African Revenue Services, it has become more and more difficult for them to meet these deadlines, for all their clients, all the time! The reason is quite simple: – this all-important financial year end stuff is generally left to the last minute and it results in huge bottlenecks in their planning.
I have no doubt that many accounting and tax practitioners will agree with on this. So, – to assist clients (and I would encourage you to pass this on to other business associates you know, for their benefit) please click on the following link, print off the notes (or copy and paste), and then hand it to your bookkeeper/accountant to take care of for you.
I would suggest they create a leverarch file, divided up in accordance with the headings on these notes, and which they can hand over to your accounting officer/tax practitioner as soon as possible after the year end. Apart from the fact that it will make your accountant’s life a lot easier, it will give you, the business owner, a much better insight into what has happened with your accounting records during the year.
Most important then – don’t forget to count stock; and make sure you’ve paid your second provisional income tax payment on time.
Looking forward to a great 2013 financial year…