Filing Season 2021 for employers, during which they must file the annual Employer Reconciliation Declaration (EMP501), opens on 1 April 2021 and closes on 31 May 2021. The EMP501 must reflect accurate payroll information about their employees, employees’ tax (PAYE) payments made and Tax Certificates (IRP5/IT3) (a)s generated, covering the full tax year from 1 March 2020 to 28 February 2021.
The general provisions under POPIA will apply equally to any personal information processed by an employer as part of an employee’s employment, and all employers have until 1 July 2021 to ensure that their workplaces are fully POPIA compliant.
As emerging technologies become more accepted and established throughout society, old problems become solved and new opportunities start to arise. Blockchain has been around for over a decade and has been popularized mostly through its association with cryptocurrencies. Offering numerous benefits, new applications of blockchain are constantly being researched in the hopes of disrupting industries. One of these applications is that of tokenization – specifically, the tokenization of assets.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a severe impact on tax revenue collection. Given large predicted shortfalls in revenue for 2020/21 and over the next three years, the 2020 Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) confirmed that tax increases totalling R40 billion would be required over the next four years to help stabilise public debt and return the public finances to a sustainable position. These increases were first announced in the June 2020 special adjustments budget.
Government is reducing the number of tax incentives, expenditure deductions and assessed loss offsets, with the aim of lowering the corporate income tax rate over the medium term. These changes are expected to enhance efficiency, transparency and fairness in the business tax system, while facilitating economic growth through improved investment and competitiveness.
Personal income tax accounts for about 40 per cent of total tax revenue. In response to extreme levels of inequality, South Africa’s rate structure is highly progressive and covers tax residents’ worldwide income. South Africa has the highest personal income tax share among upper middle-income countries, alongside one of the highest top personal income tax rates.
The sustainability of the public finances will depend heavily on government’s ability to reduce growth in the public-service wage bill. Compensation accounted for about 34 per cent of consolidated spending in 2019/20. Between 2006/07 and 2019/20, compensation was one of the fastest-growing spending items, increasing faster than GDP growth. As outlined in previous editions of the Budget Review and MTBPS, by 2019/20 rising compensation spending had become unaffordable and was the main expenditure risk to the sustainability of the public finances. At the general government level (which includes municipalities), South Africa’s wage bill as a share of output is approximately 5 percentage points higher than the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development average – and on par with Iceland and Denmark.
Codes of Conduct:
Early in January 2021, Facebook’s messaging app WhatsApp received massive backlash in relation to an update of its privacy policy which was meant to take effect on the 8th of February 2021. Effectively, the update allows for new functionality to the businesses feature by allowing WhatsApp to reserve the right to share the different data it collects from you to other Facebook based apps.
Tito Mboweni’s big day looms this month, with little progress on the medium-term budget policy speech. The biggest issue relates to the freeze on government wages to which there has been no resolution yet. Let’s hope that we get finality in the upcoming budget.
The digital landscape is constantly evolving, and as more emerging technologies gain traction, more and more opportunities become available to businesses that need to be utilized otherwise they risk falling behind – especially now that we are living in a vastly different “New Normal”. It is now harder for businesses to only rely on word of mouth or the use of bulk emailing to keep their clients informed and must utilize all digital platforms in order to thrive.
Personal Information
The Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC), acknowledges the impact that the COVID- 19 pandemic and the national lockdown, in terms of the Disaster Management Act, has had on companies and close corporations and may continue to have in the near future. With the move of South Africa to lockdown level 1 and the re-start of the economy, it is imperative that all entities re-commence with their regulatory compliance obligations.
Government’s policy priorities remain on economic recovery and fiscal consolidation, as outlined in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Economic Reconstruction and Recovery plan and the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement released in October. The social compact agreed to between government, business, labour and civil society prioritises short-term measures to support the economy, alongside crucial structural economic reforms.
(extract from the World economic forum’s “The Great Reset”)
(Extract from the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement)
(Extract from the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement)
(Extract from the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement)
(Extract from the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement)
The Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) is tasked with ensuring, monitoring and enforcing compliance with the Companies Act. In pursuance of this function, the Commission issued Notice 52 of 2019 dated 13 August 2018, which came into effect from 1 January 2020. The Notice announced that a new mandatory Compliance Checklist would be required to be completed and submitted by all categories of companies (but not a Close Corporation or “CC”). The Checklist had to be submitted to the Commission before the relevant company’s Annual Return could be submitted.
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated digital disruption and led to significant, long-term market uncertainty. While this pandemic has forced many businesses to reduce or suspend operations, affecting their bottom line, it has helped to accelerate the development of several emerging technologies. This is especially true for innovations that reduce human-to-human contact, automate processes, and increase productivity amid at social distancing.
The economic impact of the lockdown has been crippling on our economy. As part of the monetary policy to help boost the economy, the Reserve Bank has made a number of rate changes to the repo rate this year. As the interest rates are linked to the repo rate, banks and other suppliers of credit have reduced lending rates accordingly.
The economic effects of the coronavirus crisis have been extensive and a recovery to pre-pandemic levels will take several years. Current forecasts from the IMF show global gross domestic product (GDP) contracting by about 4.9% this year, although the general economic outlook has improved somewhat. Second quarter GDP outcomes for most economies have been massively negative, as expected. At this stage, third and fourth quarter recoveries for 2020 are expected to be robust. However, the pace of growth into 2021 could be modest, depending on control of new virus outbreaks, the extent of supply and demand losses, and future growth in investment and productivity.
Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) will conduct a population count in 2021, Census 2021. This will be the fourth population count in post-apartheid South Africa.
