August is quite an important month in terms of FSB requirements.
FSPs who are obliged to appoint a compliance officer must submit their compliance reports by 15 August. Category II FSPs must ensure that their bi-annual compliance reports are with the FSB by 31 August.
Concerning the annual FSB levies, it is important that you ensure that your data is reflected accurately on the FSB website at the end of the month, for two reasons:
- If your figures include people no longer associated with the business, you will pay too much, and vice versa.
- If your figures are manipulated downwards to reduce the levy, you could get into big of trouble, from an honesty and integrity perspective. The FSB is aware of such attempts in the past, and is on the lookout for transgressions of this nature.
Please remember to use the Moonstone Levy Calculator to check your facts against the invoice you receive.
On a lighter note, and as a short long weekend is upon us, we share some thoughts on a levy of another nature.
In Don McLean’s famous song “American Pie” he sings: “Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry”. Being Afrikaans, I heard lavvy, which is not that much different from how some people feel about the levies they have to pay. The following two explanations from the internet provide more insight:
- Most students of the song see this merely as another metaphor for the death of the American dream. A Chevy was a very popular car among youth. The levee, for towns that had them, was a popular gathering place for teens who wanted to hang out without adult supervision.
- A metaphorical look into how 1950’s American innocence had died along with the three rock legends. This is fitting, as the fateful plane crash also occurred at the end of the decade. The Levee, bar in Westchester, NY, where McLean grew up, closed down at some point, and this is what the “levee was dry” line refers to.
The levee is also a structure to counter floods, which makes me think that the first explanation is possibly closer to the truth.
