In South Africa, business compliance obligations are enforced by several different government bodies, each responsible for a different section of business oversight, and each with its own systems and requirements. Compliance is a strategic business priority today, not only because it is essential to business success, but also because it is ongoing, extremely expensive, and increasingly complex.

Compliance is essential

Non-compliance with business regulations can trigger financial penalties, audits, being flagged as non-compliant by CIPC, rejected funding applications, and missed commercial opportunities. Unpaid tax debt can be collected by SARS directly from a company’s bank account or another third party, like a client. Deregistration at CIPC means the company loses legal standing to contract, and this can result in, for example, the company’s bank account being closed by the financial institution. 

Compliance is ongoing

Compliance isn’t a once-off exercise. It’s an ongoing responsibility that evolves as your business starts interacting with banks, funders, clients, and regulators, employs staff, and generates more revenue. Local businesses are subject to ever more regulatory obligations that are not only increasingly complex but also constantly changing, demanding ever more human and financial resources.

Compliance is so expensive

Compliance costs are substantial in South Africa, roughly three to five times higher than in similar countries, according to the Free Market Foundation. “Across an estimated 150,000 SMEs, the aggregate cost of compliance is estimated at R270 – 450 billion annually, equating to roughly 4 – 6% of GDP.” The report continues: “For a medium-sized enterprise, direct compliance expenditures, including internal compliance staff, external advisors, licencing and filing fees, and reporting systems, range from R1.4 million to R3 million per year. When indirect costs (diversion of management time, lost strategic opportunities, risk mitigation activities) are included, the total annual burden may easily double.”

Compliance is for every business

For almost all businesses, essential compliance includes at the very least the requirements of the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC), the South African Revenue Service (SARS) and the Department of Employment and Labour (DEL)

CIPC compliance: Annual returns and Beneficial Owner Registers

• Registration: CIPC registers and maintains records of private companies (Pty Ltds) and close corporations (CCs) in South Africa.
• Legal standing: CIPC compliance gives your business a legal registration number, recognition as a juristic person, the standing to contract with clients and institutions, and the ability to open a business bank account.
• Annual returns: Every registered company must submit annual returns (and other documents) to CIPC within 30 business days of its registration anniversary to confirm the business is active and to disclose annual turnover. Beneficial Owner Registers must also be filed annually or when beneficial ownership changes occur.

Consequences of non-compliance include late filing penalties, being marked as a non-compliant company, and – after two consecutive years of non-submission – possible deregistration. Deregistration can invalidate contracts and result in bank accounts being frozen.

SARS: Tax compliance

• Income tax: Companies are automatically registered for income tax when incorporated with CIPC, but compliance still requires submitting income tax returns annually, as well as provisional tax returns twice a year where applicable, while keeping accurate financial records and paying tax liabilities on time.
• Employee taxes: From the day your first employee starts, employee income tax (PAYE), Unemployment Insurance Fund contributions (UIF), and the Skills Development Levy (SDL) must be declared and paid monthly via the EMP201 return.
• VAT: VAT registration is mandatory once annual taxable supplies exceed R2.3 million in any 12-month period. Voluntary registration is allowed when taxable supplies exceed R120,000. VAT compliance typically means bi-monthly or monthly VAT201 submissions, accurate invoicing and strict record-keeping.

Tax non-compliance is one of the most common reasons businesses run into penalties, audits, or rejected funding applications, because many tenders, credit applications, and commercial contracts require proof of tax compliance in the form of a SARS TCS (Tax Compliance Status) PIN (Personal Identification Number).

DEL: Labour law compliance

• Written employment contracts and policies aligned with the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA), the Labour Relations Act (LRA), the National Minimum Wage Act (NMW) and any applicable sectoral determinations are critical.
• UIF registration is mandatory within 21 days after appointing the first employee who works at least 24 hours a month, using the DEL’s uFiling portal.
• The COIDA (Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act) requires registration with the Compensation Fund to provide workplace injury compensation. Businesses must submit an annual Return of Earnings (ROE) to the DEL, declaring employees’ earnings, even in years with no incidents, to keep the crucial Letter of Good Standing valid.

Labour law non-compliance is a common cause of audits, inspections, and penalties. In addition, missing a ROE submission can delay the company’s Letter of Good Standing, holding up tender participation, contracts, and even site access.

Compliance as a strategic strength

Compliance can be a strategic strength. Proactively managed compliance protects organisations from risk, improves access to funding, maintains eligibility for opportunities and partnerships, and enables your business to thrive responsibly. We can assist you in all company compliance matters. Our expertise and years of experience will not only unlock all these benefits for you but will also save your company a great deal of time, hassle, and costs – now and in the long run.

From communication channels, to shared workspaces, AI chatbots and design services, companies are aware that they are paying more for monthly subscriptions than ever before. Research, however, suggests that most firms have no idea how deep the problem goes. The Zylo 2026 SaaS (Software as a Service) Management Index reported that the average large organisation manages 305 separate software applications. Forty-six percent of those licences sit unused at any given time, representing approximately $19.8 million in wasted annual expenditure for the average enterprise. And it’s not just a problem affecting larger businesses. According to the report, the average British SME is estimated to waste as much as R250 000 a year on software that isn’t being actively used. These figures reflect more than careless purchasing decisions. They are a predictable consequence of how cloud software is designed to be sold, distributed, and renewed. SaaS vendors have built their distribution models around frictionless adoption and auto-renewals. For organisations that lack formal governance over their software portfolios, this dynamic produces a cost base that grows by default, irrespective of whether the tools in question are delivering measurable business value.

Why oversight fails

The central driver of SaaS creep is decentralisation. Over the past decade, purchasing authority for software has migrated steadily away from IT and finance functions and towards individual business units. The Zylo 2026 SaaS Management Index found that business units now control 81% of total SaaS spend, while IT departments directly manage just 15%. In a small business, where procurement processes are typically informal and financial controls on software purchasing are loosely enforced, this dynamic is even more pronounced. In short, no single department maintains visibility across the full portfolio. The Marketing team acquires its own tools, Operations purchases its own platforms, and individual team members subscribe to productivity applications on corporate expense accounts. According to Productiv, approximately 48% of enterprise applications are effectively unmanaged, meaning no one in the organisation is tracking renewal dates or monitoring active usage. Each purchasing decision is locally rational. But collectively, they produce a software stack which is almost impossible to fully understand, manage or audit.

The renewal mechanism

Automatic renewals compound the problem. SaaS vendors have no interest in identifying underutilised licences ahead of renewal as exercising the contractual right to reduce or cancel rests entirely with the buyer.

Are there solutions?

The only way of making sure you don’t become a victim of SaaS creep, is to take control of the issue and focus on visibility, ownership, and timing. Complete visibility means knowing every active subscription in the portfolio: what it costs, who authorised it, and whether it’s being used. As your accountants, we can help you conduct a full audit of subscriptions, and put together a list of just what’s being deducted and for which service. Once you know what you are subscribed to, you can decide what to keep and which to cull. Following on from this, it’s vital to assign someone from each team to oversee subscriptions. This person needs to make the ultimate purchasing decisions, and must maintain a complete list of subscribed services. This way, subscriptions can become an element of employee onboarding and offboarding, ensuring nothing gets lost in the system and invisible renewal costs don’t pile up in the background.

The final word

SaaS creep is, at its root, an organisational design problem. It emerges predictably wherever purchases are not carefully monitored, and where auto-renewal clauses allow costs to persist beyond the point of value. For you as a business leader, the takeaway is simple: software spend requires the same disciplined oversight as any other cost.

Bad decisions are a near-universal leadership experience. A 2023 study of more than 14,000 employees and business leaders across 17 countries, commissioned by Oracle, found that 85 percent of business leaders have suffered from what the researchers called “decision distress” (regretting, feeling guilty about, or actively questioning a decision made) in the past year. The same study found that 72 percent of business leaders admitted they had, at some point, given up on making a decision altogether because the available data felt overwhelming. Decision-making, in other words, is hard for everyone. What separates leaders who recover and grow from those who stall is not the absence of bad calls. It is the quality of their response.

Own it before it owns you

The most consistent thread running through research on leadership recovery is the importance of accountability. The instinct to go quiet or minimise the impact when a decision backfires is understandable, but it can also be expensive. Once an error is noticed, credibility is far harder to restore than it would have been had the leader simply spoken plainly from the outset. The fastest route to rebuilding trust is not spin, but ownership.

Diagnose the root, not just the symptom

The second step, and one that leaders under pressure are most tempted to skip, is genuinely understanding why the decision went wrong. Surface-level post-mortems, such as “we moved too fast”, or “we didn’t have enough data” only produce surface-level corrections. Durable improvement requires tracing the failure back to its actual structural cause. Was it a flawed decision-making process? Groupthink? A blind spot about the customer? Or an incentive structure that rewarded the wrong behaviour? Denis Liam Murphy, leadership consultant and author of The Blame Game, argues that leaders need to develop what he calls “real-time hindsight”, the discipline of reflecting immediately and honestly on what a decision revealed, rather than waiting for a formal review cycle.

The Schultz playbook: Structural recovery at scale

When Schultz returned to Starbucks as CEO in January 2008, he inherited the consequences of decisions made during a period of aggressive over-expansion. The company’s stock had declined approximately 70 percent from its 2006 peak, and 600 stores were closed across 2008 and 2009. As a Harvard Business School case study on the turnaround later documented, Starbucks had drifted from the core identity that had made it successful: the experience, the craft, and the culture. Schultz’s recovery was not built on a single dramatic gesture. It was built on a systematic return to first principles: closing 7,100 US stores for a single afternoon in February 2008 to retrain baristas, investing in the quality of the product, and making a deliberate, public commitment to slowing down in order to grow sustainably. The recovery that followed became a business school case study not because the error was unusual, but because the response to it was disciplined, transparent, and impactful in a way that resonated with the customer base.

Build the lesson into the system

The next step in the process is to build the mechanisms which help prevent mistakes from going too far into the system. This means creating what practitioners sometimes call a “failure loop”, a deliberate process for reviewing decisions, documenting what was learned, and feeding those lessons back into future decision-making frameworks. The practical application for any business is straightforward: after a significant misstep, write down what happened and what should have been done differently. Share it with the team. Make the lesson available to the organisation, not just the person who made the call.

Resilience is not indifference

All this advice comes with a warning. Once making errors becomes consigned to a system, it opens up the possibility of leaders accepting errors as common, processing them efficiently and therefore, becoming indifferent to their impacts. On the surface this can look like emotional stoicism, but that is neither realistic nor effective. Obviously, mistakes should be avoided at all costs. Murphy’s research points to three foundations of genuine leadership resilience: psychology, self-care, and a support network. The first is the capacity to frame struggle as information rather than verdict. The second is giving yourself the actual time and space to recover. The third is having people around you who will tell you the truth.

None of that is soft advice. The studies show that a leader who burns through a failure without adequately processing it is actually more likely to repeat it. The goal is not to feel nothing, but to feel clearly, learn quickly, and move with intention.

For many taxpayers, it feels as if you’re making income tax payments all the time.

It’s not far from the truth because, in South Africa, provisional taxpayers make two compulsory payments (and possibly a third voluntary payment) each year. And that’s even before the annual income tax deadline in January of the following year, when any further tax liability will become due. As a result, there are numerous deadlines that overlap across tax years. Yes: it is confusing, as the table below illustrates. But there’s no point throwing your arms up in the air: provisional tax non-compliance is met with some of the harshest penalties imposed by SARS.

Provisional and income tax timelines

Who are ‘provisional taxpayers’?

• All companies except those specifically excluded
• Any person who earns income which is not remuneration, an allowance or advance or who earns remuneration from an employer not registered for employees’ tax except those specifically excluded
• A labour broker with an exemption certificate
• Any person notified by the Commissioner of SARS

Why must provisional tax be paid?

Provisional tax payments are like instalments on taxpayers’ annual income tax, paid in advance and spread over two or three payments during the year. These payments are deducted against any tax owing after the year’s final income tax return is filed – at which point any further tax liability will then become due. The objective is to prevent taxpayers from facing large income tax liabilities that are only revealed at the end of the year of assessment. 

How is provisional tax declared and paid?

• Provisional tax payments are calculated on estimated taxable income, including current taxable capital gains, for that particular year of assessment.
• The estimates, says SARS, must be determined sensibly and by careful reasoning and judgment, in a mathematical manner, and using experience, common sense and all available information.
• The first period estimate is forward-looking, requiring companies to estimate their taxable income for the year ahead and then to pay tax on this estimate in advance.
• In contrast, the second period provisional return is retrospective, since by the year-end there is more certainty regarding the income for the year, and the tax due thereon.
• These estimates of taxable income are submitted to SARS on an IRP6 return, which must be submitted by all provisional taxpayers for the first and second periods.
• Even if you or your company owes no tax, a ‘nil’ return showing taxable income is equal to zero must still be filed on time.
• If an IRP6 is filed more than four months after the deadline, SARS considers a ‘nil’ return to have been submitted, and unless the actual taxable income is really zero, this will result in penalties.
• Accurate records of all the calculations and source documents used must be kept as SARS can ask for the estimate to be justified and, if dissatisfied with the amount, increase the estimate.

Do call on our professional assistance

All taxpayers are ultimately responsible for their tax affairs, even though provisional tax is particularly daunting and confusing, with so many overlapping deadlines, complex requirements and harsh penalties.

Expert tax advice is highly recommended to ensure compliance with the requirements and the filing and payment deadlines. You know who to call.

When starting a small business, it’s easy to assume you don’t have all the knowledge you need to compete, and that the big, successful corporation next door holds all the keys to success. With their polished org charts, complex strategy documents, and fleets of middle managers, big corporations and their strategies can look like growth to the beginner. This is a mistake. The truth is, big companies operate within a completely different set of constraints and economies to smaller, founder-run businesses. Understanding which big business strategies could hurt if implemented in your business, is therefore a key to survival.

Hiring for the org chart, not the work

Large corporations often hire ahead of demand. They build out departments, create roles to fill future needs, and staff up in anticipation of growth. They can afford to carry headcount. Smaller businesses cannot. Many small business owners get caught up in the excitement of expansion, and start hiring to look like a bigger company, or in anticipation of future problems, rather than to solve a specific current issue. They add a layer of management before there’s anything to manage, or recruit a marketing team before they’ve validated what their customers actually want. The result is a payroll that grows faster than revenue, and a business that starts to take strain under the weight of salaries it was never ready to carry. As a new business, it is essential that each hire adds immediate value to the company and can justify their pay cheque from day one. If you are unsure what someone will do in their first 90 days, this is probably a hire you don’t need. 

Complexity for the sake of it

Big companies love processes and reporting structures. Everything from ordering printer paper to launching a new product needs multiple meetings, committee sign-offs, and documented procedures. Some of this is necessary when you’re coordinating thousands of people across continents… But for a small team, your biggest advantage is agility. Small businesses thrive on speed and flexibility. Your ability to make a decision at 9am and implement it by lunchtime is a genuine competitive edge over a corporate rival that needs a risk assessment before it can switch toilet paper suppliers. The moment you start building bureaucracy into your own operation (think overly formal sign-off chains, or meetings about meetings) you are denting the very quality that makes you competitive.

Spending unnecessarily on brand before earning the right

A classic mistake many growing startups make, is one that’s also obvious to any experienced business owner the second they walk into the offices. The expensive logo on frosted glass, the branded hoodies, and the slick website are all in evidence – but the pipeline runs thin and the cash flow statement speaks of desperation. Big companies invest heavily in brand because they have proven revenue streams and established customer relationships. Brand maintenance is a legitimate line item at that scale. For a small business still finding its feet, over-investing in brand before you have a viable business is putting the cart firmly before the horse. Customers care more about whether you solve their problem better than anyone else than they do about your brand. Earn that reputation first. The brand follows from the substance, not the other way around.

Chasing revenue while ignoring cash

Publicly listed companies are accountable to shareholders who want to see top-line revenue growth. That pressure filters through to every level of a large organisation and shapes how it measures success. Revenue is celebrated; profit is secondary. For small and medium-sized businesses, this is a genuinely dangerous mindset to adopt. In the early days, cash flow will be the ultimate difference between thriving and going bang. A client can owe you a large sum and your business can still fail if that money doesn’t arrive in time to cover your wages run.

But still, small business owners routinely chase headline revenue figures, winning bigger contracts, and pursuing growth at all costs without doing the hard work of understanding whether these sales are actually translating into cash flow, and whether the timing of receipts matches the reality of their outgoings. It is vital that you know the real numbers that will affect the day-to-day running of your business. And that you understand the difference between revenue and profit, and between profit and cash in the bank. As your accountants, we are here to help you see this clearly.

Outsourcing the customer service relationship

Enterprise businesses outsource customer service, because economies of scale demand it. For small businesses, this is a critical error, as the relationship between your business and your customers is one of the most valuable assets you possess. When you outsource your pitches to a big agency, your customer queries to a call centre, or your social media to a junior member of staff who doesn’t really understand what you do, you lose the intimacy that made customers choose you in the first place. People buy from small businesses because they feel seen. They want the expert, not the system. Protect that connection carefully.

The bottom line is this: the best small businesses succeed by doing things that big companies structurally cannot. They move fast, know their customers personally, make smart decisions without bureaucracy, and treat every rand as precious. Lean into that while you still have it.

When Mr and Mrs J set up a Type-A special trust for their eldest son, who is intellectually challenged, their intention was to make certain there would always be sufficient financial resources for his best care, both during and beyond their lifetimes. A special trust was recommended by a professional advisor and with good reason: Type-A special trusts are created “solely for the benefit of a person with a mental or physical disability.” However, as Mr and Mrs J found out, while Type-A special trusts have very compelling tax benefits, there are also substantial tax limitations. Fully understanding these within the unique personal context of the ultimate beneficiary is essential to ensuring the trust objectives are met over the long-term. And that means relying on specialist and individualised tax advice when considering a trust arrangement of any kind.

Why set up a trust?

A correctly structured trust can be a powerful financial planning tool for business and property owners, wealthy individuals, or families. It can help manage succession, protect assets, provide for children or dependents, navigate estate planning issues and pass on wealth responsibly. What is crucial is setting up the right structure for the objectives of the particular trust and understanding the consequences – and particularly the tax consequences – of the decisions made.

Which trust is best for you?

There are many different types of trusts in South Africa. For example, an inter vivos (living or family) trust, is created during your lifetime to hold assets such as property, business interests or investments, while a testamentary trust is created through a will (it only kicks in after your death) and is especially important where minor children are involved. There are also vesting and discretionary trusts, and hybrid trusts that combine the two, as well as a range of specific application trusts like trading (business) trusts, charitable trusts or BEE trusts, to mention but a few.

What about special trusts?

For tax purposes, two types of special trusts are also recognised, the Type-A special trust is intended solely for a person with a mental or physical disability, as in our opening story, and the Type-B special trust created specifically for the benefit of relatives of a deceased person, provided at least one beneficiary is a minor on the last day of the trust’s year of assessment.

The trust types are not mutually exclusive. For example, a trust can technically be both a Type-A special trust and a vesting trust; or both a Type-B special trust and a discretionary trust. However, the exact trust type really matters from a tax perspective, because Type-A and Type-B special trusts are not taxed in the same way, and both are taxed differently to normal trusts. This should be carefully considered before establishing a trust, and then disclosed when completing the mandatory annual tax returns.

How is income for normal trusts taxed?

In terms of what is called the “conduit principle”, trust income or capital gains may be taxed in the hands of the trust or the beneficiaries, depending on when that income or capital gain vests. Where the trust itself is taxed, it is taxed at a flat rate of 45%. Beneficiaries are taxed at their personal tax rate on a sliding scale from 18% to 45% and also benefit from various tax rebates. SARS taxes a trust’s capital gains depending on whether the gains are retained in the trust or vested to a beneficiary in the same year of assessment. Normal trusts face an effective Capital Gains Tax (CGT) rate of 36% (calculated from an inclusion rate of 80%, which is then taxed at the flat 45% income tax).

Beneficiaries that are individual taxpayers have a maximum effective CGT rate of 18% (calculated from an inclusion rate of 40%) and also qualify for rebates such as the R50,000 annual CGT exclusion, the R3-million primary residence CGT exclusion, and disregarded CGT gains on personal-use assets or compensation for personal injury, illness or defamation.

The special case of Type-A special trusts

Type-A special trusts, on the other hand, are taxed using individual income tax brackets on a progressive sliding scale from 18% to 45%. Their capital gains inclusion rate is 40%, making their maximum effective CGT rate 18%, lower than for normal trusts and the same as for natural persons. They also qualify for CGT rebates that apply to individuals as listed above. Relief from donations tax on interest-free or low-interest loans to Type-A special trusts also applies.

However, there are some important tax limitations. Type-A special trusts do not qualify for medical tax credits, primary tax rebates, or the annual interest exemption available to natural persons. A Type-A special trust may vest income in a qualifying beneficiary so that the income is taxed in that individual’s hands, enabling the individual to use their own rebates, medical credits and interest exemption.

Bottom line: it’s complicated, so get professional tax advice based on your specific circumstances.  

Our tax advice can make all the difference

Whether you’re considering a special trust, an inter vivos trust, or any other structure, the differences in how income and capital gains are taxed, and what tax rebates are allowed, can have a significant impact on the real-world benefit delivered to the trust beneficiaries. The right choice depends entirely on the trust’s objectives, your unique circumstances, and a careful analysis of possible tax consequences.

For specialist, individualised tax advice and professional assistance, contact us.

In 2026, Gen Z and Millennials are beginning to take their place as the dominant purchasing generations. It’s a significant moment as these two generations do things differently to those that came before. Millennials established the trend, choosing to focus on values-led purchasing, driven by a preference for transparency, and a willingness to hold brands to account. Gen Z has taken it further still, treating consumption as activism.

According to McKinsey & Company, nearly 70 percent of respondents say that a brand’s social and ethical values directly influence their purchasing decisions. This deepening sense that spending choices carry moral weight, a trend known as “charitable identity”, has created a consumer bloc unlike any that has come before it. For small business owners and entrepreneurs, understanding this shift is about to become essential for future earnings. 

Identity is the new loyalty

For older generations, brand loyalty was largely built on reliability and price. For younger consumers, the framework is entirely different: brands are worn like values on a sleeve. Research from the 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer confirms that Gen Z uses brand affiliation as a form of social signalling. It’s a way of communicating who they are, and who they are not. This means that choosing to buy from a brand is less about the product and more about the statement. A clothing label with verified ethical supply chains, a bank that invests in community lending, or a coffee company that pays fair-trade premiums: these are all brands that allow the purchaser to feel that their money is doing something meaningful. In this sense, purpose-driven brands have become a form of charitable giving. The consumer simultaneously acquires a product and signals support for a cause.

Where ethical business meets charitable identity

Perhaps the most nuanced dimension of this trend is the ever-blurring line between consumption and philanthropy. For many younger consumers, donating to a cause and buying from a purpose-aligned brand are not distinct activities. They occupy the same emotional register: both feel like acts of conviction.

This overlap between consumption and charitable intent is transforming the way small businesses can position themselves: a clear social mission is also a business goal. If you have not made space in your annual budgets for your social mission, this must be rectified as soon as possible. You need to decide just what you stand for, and how much you can afford to invest in this aspect of your business. As your accountants, we can help you with this.

What this means for Mandela Day

Getting involved in initiatives like Mandela Day is no longer a purely philanthropic choice. And, interestingly, small businesses have an advantage over big ones. While a large corporation can sponsor a global cause at arm’s length, a small business can muck in at a local level. From supporting the local school’s sports team, volunteering at a food bank, or committing a percentage of monthly sales to a neighbourhood cause, it’s all about making your values visible to your immediate community.

Regular and authentic charitable activity generates word-of-mouth referrals that no advertising budget can replicate. It earns coverage in local and trade media, and produces social media content that resonates precisely because it is real. It also builds internal loyalty, as employees who feel proud of where they work are more motivated and less likely to leave.

The key piece, however, is alignment. Charitable activity that feels disconnected from your business’s identity will stick out to a generation trained to detect inauthenticity at a glance. A legal firm that mentors disadvantaged youth, an accountancy practice that runs free financial literacy workshops, a café that donates unsold food to a local shelter: these are acts of giving that simultaneously tell a coherent story about who you are and what you stand for.

The practical formula is straightforward: choose causes your team genuinely cares about, build long-term partnerships rather than one-off gestures, communicate them consistently across your channels, and track the outcome not only in goodwill but in customer retention and referral rates. What you choose to do for Mandela Day is a valuable part of your brand, not just an excuse to get out of the office.

The 2026 Tax Season officially opens on 13 July 2026 for the 2025/2026 year of assessment, covering the period between 1 March 2025 and 28 February 2026.

During filing season, taxpayers must complete and submit their tax returns, declaring their income and deductions to allow SARS to determine their final tax liability for the period under assessment.

Dates to diarise

What’s new this filing season

• “The Power of Done”: This year SARS is inviting taxpayers to experience “The Power of Done”, a campaign that centres on Auto-Assessments. SARS says that if you agree with your auto-assessment, you don’t need to manually file a return or do anything else, truly experiencing “The Power of Done”.
• More prefilled data: More taxpayer information from third parties like employers, banks, medical schemes, insurers and retirement funds, is already pre-populated on returns, which means less time spent on capturing data and hopefully fewer mistakes.
• Stricter verification: SARS has upgraded its data-matching algorithms. So even if auto-assessed, make sure to double-check that all your data (like deductions and donations) is accurate.
• WhatsApp integration: Taxpayers can now receive their Notice of Assessment (ITA34) or Statement of Account (SOA), as well as securely upload supporting documents, directly via WhatsApp.

To be or not to be auto-assessed… Here’s what to do

Rely on our expertise for a hassle-free filing season 

This is what we can do for you:

• Verify all SARS communications are legitimate to protect you from scams.
• Check that all taxpayer and banking details are correct and updated with SARS to facilitate refunds and to prevent identity theft and fraud.
• Claim every tax rebate available to you to avoid you paying more tax than required.
• Correctly prepare all required documentation early to avoid last-minute delays and to expedite a possible SARS verification or audit.
• Check auto-assessments to ensure these are correct before they are accepted.
• Ensure that your tax return submissions comply with current regulations.
• Meet all submission deadlines on your behalf to avoid penalties.

Our team of seasoned tax professionals is ready to make this filing season a doddle!

Running a business is a human endeavour, and as such, every business leader will eventually find themselves faced with a skilled, reliable employee who starts showing signs that something is deeply wrong outside of work. Maybe their performance dips suddenly, or perhaps they’re distracted, tearful, or inexplicably short-tempered? Maybe they even come to you directly and share something deeply private? In that moment, you’re no longer just an employer managing output and payroll. You become, whether you’re ready for it or not, a human being navigating someone else’s pain. The way small business owners handle these moments has a profound effect not only on the individual concerned, but on team morale, workplace culture, and the long-term health of the business itself. Here’s what you need to do.

Create a safe space for the conversation

The first, and often hardest, step is simply opening the door. Many managers notice something is wrong but say nothing, hoping it will resolve itself. If you observe a genuine change in an employee’s behaviour or performance, it is important that you request a quiet, private meeting and approach it gently. Avoid framing it as a performance issue at this stage. Instead, lead with concern, “I’ve noticed you haven’t seemed yourself lately. Is everything okay?” That single question can be transformative. It signals that you see the person, not just the output. During this conversation you should simply listen, acknowledge what you are hearing and resist the temptation to offer advice or opinions. In short, be a decent human rather than a boss. 

Know your obligations (and your limits)

Once you understand the situation, it’s important to consider both your legal responsibilities and your personal boundaries. Depending on the nature of the crisis, you may have obligations around statutory sick pay, flexible working requests, or reasonable adjustments. Reread your employment contracts and HR policies. If your business doesn’t yet have clear wellbeing policies, this is a timely moment to create them. We will be able to help you establish budgets for contingencies such as freelancer assistance or added sick leave.

Equally, be honest with yourself about what you can and cannot provide. You are not a counsellor, and it is neither fair nor appropriate to position yourself as one. Pointing the employee towards professional support, your Employee Assistance Programme if you have one, or external resources is neither cold nor unreasonable.

Agree on a practical plan together

Once the initial conversation has taken place, work collaboratively with your employee to agree on a short-term plan. This might involve a temporary reduction in hours, a period of remote working, adjusted responsibilities, or a phased return following their absence. The key word here is collaboratively. Imposing a solution, however well-intentioned, can feel patronising and could risk legal issues. Asking what would help communicates respect and encourages autonomy at a moment when the person may feel they have very little control over their own life. Document whatever is agreed, not to create a paper trail, but to give both parties clarity and to prevent misunderstandings further down the line.

Privacy is paramount

Whatever an employee chooses to disclose, they are placing enormous trust in you. Do not share the details of their situation with colleagues or outsiders, even with the best intentions. If their absence or change in role requires some explanation to the wider team, keep it vague: “[Name] is dealing with a personal matter and we’re supporting them through it.” That is sufficient. Even well-meaning gossip can be devastating to someone already feeling vulnerable. And it also sends a powerful signal to every other member of your team about how their own confidences might be handled in the future.

Check in, don’t check up

Once a plan is in place, maintain regular, low-pressure contact. A brief message or a five-minute conversation every week or two shows continued care without adding pressure. There is a meaningful difference between checking in and checking up, which can feel like surveillance. As time passes, gently begin to reintegrate normal expectations, always communicating changes clearly and compassionately rather than simply shifting the goalposts.

The bottom line

Employees who are supported through personal crises often emerge more committed, more resilient, and more loyal than before. That outcome doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because someone in a position of authority chose to lead with humanity.

It’s no secret that doing business has undergone significant overhauls over the last few years. The invention of AI, and the backlash to it, have led to an increase in automation, and, in turn, a recognition that customers are now more likely than ever to value the personal touch. It’s a grand shift that might leave many small business owners uncertain just where they should be putting their energy. So how do you not only navigate this environment but actually come out more profitable?

Taking a close look at successful small businesses, it’s easy to see that there are three pillars that are often responsible for allowing independent owners to thrive in these difficult market conditions.

1. Automating administrative friction
   A clear trend has emerged where successful small businesses have started treating administrative tasks as a direct tax on their time and profit. Instead of hiring a part-time assistant or spending hours manually answering the same five questions on social media, owners are implementing “Admin-Zero” frameworks. This involves using micro-automation for customer FAQs, booking confirmations, and initial intake processes so you can focus on more personal and impactful areas.
   
   The barrier to entry for these tools has collapsed. Even a single-chair barbershop or a mom-and-pop consultancy can now use AI-driven frameworks as efficient alternatives to conventional manual procedures. This means that employee time is being saved in countless small ways daily. Spending that time on more productive behaviour like nurturing networks or driving sales has exponential benefits.
   
   
2. Securing recurring revenue
   Volatility is one of the primary enemies of small businesses. To combat this, many business owners are adopting “Service Club” memberships, a model that functions as “cash flow insurance.” Customers are being encouraged to pay a modest monthly fee to receive priority bookings, a small monthly perk, or an annual benefit or service. This model shifts the customer relationship from transactional to relational. It ensures the business remains top-of-mind for the consumer while providing the owner with a financial safety net. In 2026, many of the businesses that thrive are those that have successfully converted a portion of their expected monthly income into a “subscriber base,” effectively insuring themselves against the quiet weeks that traditionally break a small business’ back.
   
   Working out what incentives you can offer clients in return for long-term support should be a priority for all small business owners. Your accountant can help you to both determine what incentives you would be able to offer over the long-term, as well as assist in determining the subscription prices for these services. Remember, cash flow and the ability to maintain these offerings are essential to the scheme’s success.
   
   
3. Building loyalty loops
   Marketing has also changed. Much of today’s most effective marketing isn’t happening on the algorithm, it’s happening on the sidewalk. “Neighbourhood stacking” is the practice of collaborative loyalty loops between physical neighbours. A local cafe, a boutique, and a bookstore create a closed-loop ecosystem where a purchase at one grants a specific, meaningful benefit at the others. This leverages what many call the “golden dome” of local trust. This hyper-local synergy keeps consumer spending within the immediate community. Now, this trend is also expanding into service businesses, and through the freelancing community. For instance, a copywriter, designer and project manager may agree to offer a 15% discount on each other’s services in exchange for the initial hire of one of them.
   
   By “stacking” their influence, small businesses create a combined value proposition that rivals the convenience and economies of scale of much larger companies. Most customers prefer to buy local – provided the price is right. If you’re worried about the drain discounting will have on your bottom line, remember that these losses are more than mitigated by the fact that you’ve been able to reduce the cost of customer acquisition to near zero. As your accountants, we can help you to work out how best to structure any discount offers.