For the first time since 2009 — seventeen years — the VAT registration threshold in South Africa has changed. From 1 April 2026, the compulsory VAT registration threshold increased from R1 million to R2.3 million. The voluntary registration threshold also increased, from R50,000 to R120,000. The VAT rate itself remains
Every year, as South Africa’s tax filing season opens, fraudsters get to work. They know exactly what you’re doing right now. You’re filing a tax return, waiting for a refund, or expecting correspondence from SARS. And that heightened watchfulness for anything SARS-related is precisely what scammers are counting on. SARS
Most business owners have one of two relationships with a budget. Either they’ve never built one — too busy, too complicated, always something more urgent. Or they built one in January, felt very responsible about it, and haven’t looked at it since. Both approaches have the same result: the business
Most business owners file their tax return and assume SARS starts from zero — reading what they’ve declared and taking it at face value. That is not how it works. By the time your return arrives at SARS, they already have a significant amount of information about you. Your bank
Most business owners who run payroll think about it in one direction: what goes into the employee’s bank account on payday. SARS thinks about it in a completely different direction — what should have arrived in the SARS account by the 7th of this month. The gap between those two
Most business partnerships don’t fail because the business failed. They fail because two people who started with a handshake and a shared vision never agreed on what would happen when things got complicated. And things always get complicated. A business partnership is one of the most consequential decisions a business
You can be profitable on paper and still run out of money. It happens to good businesses with good owners more often than most people realise — and it almost always comes down to working capital. The income statement shows a healthy net profit. The balance sheet looks fine. And
There is a specific scenario in the SARS system that causes more panic than almost anything else — and it’s one that most business owners have never heard of until it happens to them. SARS sends an assessment. The amount on it bears no resemblance to what you actually owe.
Most business owners who earn income outside a regular salary encounter provisional tax for the first time by missing a deadline they didn’t know existed. Then the penalty arrives. Then they call their accountant. Then they learn — after the fact — that provisional tax isn’t a surprise at the
Most business owners set their prices once — usually when they started — and never revisit them. They add a reasonable margin, check what competitors charge, and pick a number that feels fair. Then they leave it there for years. Meanwhile, their costs go up. Their expertise grows. Their clients’
