SARS pays back R10bn, but some taxpayers’ refunds are being withheld

Taxpayers should inform SARS if they have been unemployed for a full year or longer, to avoid being flagged as non-compliant.

Claims and Medical Opinions

The Long-term Ombud’s Ombuzz Issue 33: April 2016 contains some very interesting case studies on the role of medical opinions when claims are repudiated. In many complaints our office has to deal with […]

Annual Financial Statements Reminder

The majority of FSPs have a financial year end of February. For them, it means that the 2016 financial statements need to be submitted by 30 June this year. Full details are contained in […]

New Financial Intelligence Centre Notices

The FIC published two new notices on 25 April: Notice 1: “The FIC is in the process of validating the applications of those registrants who have applied for access and to whom the […]

Latest Enforcement Committee Orders

The Enforcement Committee of the FSB recently published interesting details of two settlement cases. Magnum Opus It appears that Magnum Opus Investment Managers administered a collective investment scheme without being duly licenced, or […]

SA Football shows the way

Sports Minister, Fikile Mbalula, on Monday said: “I have resolved to revoke the privilege of Athletics South Africa (ASA), Cricket South Africa (CSA), Netball South Africa (NSA) and South African Rugby (SARU) to […]

The return of African Bank

Cadiz Asset Management published an interesting article on the way forward for African Bank. In 2014, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) placed African Bank under curatorship following the largest bank and corporate […]

FIC Registration Turmoil

The alarm bells went off just after 8 am last Thursday as we started getting frantic calls from compliance officers about ORG Number notification emails sent to FSPs with instructions how to verify […]

Tax Law Changes and Provident Funds

Provident fund members stand to gain a significant income boost from tax law changes – GTC Wealth Management The changes to legislation regarding provident fund cash lump sums at retirement hit the headlines […]

Springbok emblem in the crosshairs again

We normally refrain from mixing politics with sport in this column. My comments below should also not be construed as political, but rather as a practical perspective on a few issues that should […]

Reinstatement of Debarred Representatives

We receive enquiries on a daily basis from (often disgruntled) representatives who wish to re-enter the industry by applying to have their debarment lifted. Unfortunately, as a representative, you cannot apply to have […]

New Proposals affecting Compliance Officers

Two new draft Board Notices were published by the FSB last week. The first aims to provide clarity on what will be required of current Compliance Officers in terms of regulatory exams, while […]

New CO Fit & Proper Proposals

We reported on the 18th of April of two new draft Board Notices which aim to clarify the regulatory exam requirements for compliance officers and COs under supervision. A compliance officer must successfully […]

Proposed amendments to the Exemption i.r.o. COs under Supervision

In terms of the Exemption, a supervisee who does not meet the required experience and regulatory examination requirements on approval, may render compliance services under supervision whilst obtaining the required experience and regulatory […]

What will Toetie do?

The majority of reports on Allister “Toetie” Coetzee’s appointment as Springbok coach, focused more on transformation challenges than on preparing a team in limited time for a test series against a side that […]

Latest on POPI

The Protection of Personal Information Act features fairly regularly in the news, and training offers are abundant, but not yet really necessary, in our view, as the Act only takes effect one year […]

Can I change my tenant’s locks?

“I’ve been leasing a small townhouse to a young tenant. Unfortunately, the tenant is terrible at paying his rent and offers excuse after excuse. I’m fed up with the situation and just want […]