We care about our clients. We have dedicated a page to specifically help our user base in navigating the financial jungle
Many small and mid-sized businesses fail to adequately measure and manage their finances, even though poor financial management is a major cause of business failure. If you don’t have good financial practices in place, your business could suffer in a number of ways:
• Lost revenue
• Insufficient tax planning
• Missed financial opportunities
• Penalties and fines
• Closing your doors
Our monthly accounting process starts with receiving your source documents. Our staff compiles the information and reports back to you with the following to help you take back control of your finances:
• Make monthly profit and loss statements
• Make monthly balance sheets
• Perform regular account reconciliation
• Offer advice based on your financial statements, tax planning, and your business’s situation
One of the first things you’re going to want to know about monthly accounting is what kinds of advice your accountant will be able to offer you. After all, monthly accounting is a much more hands-on service than just filing taxes with an annual tax accountant.
Learning that you’ll receive monthly advice should leave you wondering what types of advice your accountant is qualified to give you.
With over 15 years of accounting experience under our belts, we’re able to quickly identify common problem areas and their solutions, but we’re also able to form a deeper understanding of your unique situation and opportunities to further customise your advice.
If you are looking for an outsourced accounting solution based on price alone, annual accounting may be enough for you. However, if your business is the right fit for monthly accounting services, they provide substantially more value than an annual service.
If an accountant only sees your numbers once a year, it’s too late to offer advice that would have helped to make that year more profitable - and definitely too late to lower your tax liability for a year that is already over with. Read about the benefits of tax planning and tax projections, two things that an annual accountant can’t provide you.
Please note that while we can handle your personal taxes as well if you are a business client of ours, many of our clients still choose to have an annual accountant do their personal taxes.
Our customer service sets our firm apart. We make it our priority to reach out to clients on a consistent basis because we care about the success of your business. Our experience also provide proactive business advice and tax planning, allowing you to maximise your profits.
Need to reach out? No problem! Other accountants will bill you by the minute, but a unique benefit that we offer is allowing our clients to contact us as much as they’d like – at no additional cost.
Yes. Audit representation is included in your monthly accounting fee. The only time that we would charge for audit representation is if the audit is for a time period during which you were not our client.
M Squared and Associates Inc. offers agent-level support, meaning that we deal with the SARS agent directly in the case of income tax audits. Almost all of these issues are resolved at the agent level and never need to go to tax court. If we’re preparing your monthly sales tax returns, we will also represent you in a sales tax audit. https://www.csiaccounting.com/accounting-faq
A standard set of Annual Financial Statements may include a:
• Statement of Financial Position,
• Statement of Comprehensive Income,
• Statement of Changes in Equity,
• Accounting policies,
• Notes to the Financial Statements.
Please note that the above is not prescriptive and depends on the entity type and the applicable financial reporting framework adopted.
There are many advantages to preparing a set of Annual Financial Statements. The below list is certainly not exhaustive:
• Identifying trends.
• Assessing progress and growth of the business.
• Reviewing actual cash inflow and outflow by inspecting the Statement of Cash Flows.
• Assessing liquidity and solvency of the business by easily comparing assets and liabilities.
• Ability to easily compare actual results to budgeted results.
• Financial information readily available for potential investors to review.
• Financial information available in an acceptable format for application of finance to banks.
• If the entity records are ever subject to an audit of any sort, one of the documents that is often requested is a set of annual financial statements.
In addition to the provision independent review engagements, our related party audit firm(s) also provides the following assurance services:
• Audits if companies with a PI score of more than 350 or the MOI (Memorandum of Incorporation) requires an audit
• Audits of Legal Practitioner’s Trust Accounts,
• Audits of Estate Agents,
• Audits of Body Corporates,
The information required is entity specific but would most commonly include;
• Founding document,
• For companies, all shareholder agreements,
• For companies and close corporations, specific financial and non-financial information.
Peace of mind to the stakeholders that the financial statements of the entity, present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position, financial performance and cash flows for the year then ended, in accordance with the applicable financial reporting framework,
Feedback provided which will assist in assessing operating efficiency of internal controls,
May assist in identifying operational inefficiencies and areas for improvement,
Provide objective insight into the business operations and systems.
When does tax filing season open?
Tax seasons opens on 1 July for all individual taxpayers.
However, a significant number of individual taxpayers will be auto-assessed starting from 1 July .
These taxpayers will have an opportunity to manually file their returns should they not agree to the auto-assessment
Taxpayers who cannot file their returns electronically will have up to 23 November to submit their tax returns at the branch (by appointment only).
• Taxpayers will have up to 23 November to file their tax returns online.
• The deadline for electronic filing for provisional taxpayers is extended to 31 January
The dates for the 2024 Filing Season are: Auto-assessment notices: 1 July 2024 to 14 July 2024. Individual taxpayers (non-provisional): 15 July 2024 to 21 October 2024. Provisional taxpayers: 15 July 2024 to 20 January 2025
The following information is needed:
• IRP5 employee tax certificate;
• IT3(b) and (c) certificates from financial institutions in respect of interest, dividends and capital gains;
• Retirement annuity fund or pension fund contribution certificate:
• Medical Aid certificate of contributions; and
• Travel logbook (related to travel allowances received)
Further to the above, any additional income received by the taxpayer during the tax period must be declared on the return.
You are not required to file a tax return if your income for the tax year is not above the R500 000 threshold, and you meet the following requirements:
• Your remuneration is paid from one employer;
• You have no car or travel allowance, a company car fringe benefit, which is considered as additional income;
• Your employee tax (PAYE) has been deducted or withheld; and
• You did not earn any other additional income such as rentals, dividends, interest, etc.
The odds are high for tax returns to be flagged by SARS for periods where taxpayers are required to submit a return and a return was not submitted, i.e. periods where the taxpayer did not meet all the requirements of the threshold.
SARS takes up to 7-21 business days to process a refund to verified South African banking accounts.
A taxpayer’s residency status is determined using the residency tests outlined in our Income Tax Act, being the ordinarily residence test and the physical presence test.
A taxpayer’s circumstances and history will have to be assessed, preferably by a tax professional against the criteria, to determine the residency status of the taxpayer and how they will submit their returns to SARS.
South African tax residents are taxed on their worldwide income and as such, foreign income earned (including fringe benefits and bonuses) by a South African tax resident must be declared to SARS for tax purposes. We offer a potential expatriate tax calculation service to help SA tax residents determine their potential tax liability.
Yes, South African tax residents working for South African employers do qualify for foreign income exemption if they render their services outside the Republic. Please note that the Section 10(1((o)(ii) exemption is now capped at R1.25 million.
Yes, to benefit from the exemption you are still required to declare your foreign employment income and thereafter claim the exemption accordingly.
Yes, even though you have paid taxes abroad in respect of your income earned, your income must still be declared to SARS and be subject to South African tax. It’s important to note that taxpayers who are subject to double taxation may take advantage of the available South African tax treaties to avoid double taxation. This process also needs to be declared and submitted to SARS.
Non-residents with active tax reference numbers will still be required to submit a tax return even where they have not earned South African sourced income. Such a return will be a zero return. The obligation to submit a return will fall away where you have no South African sourced income and have deregistered your tax number. (You may only deregister once you dispose of all your assets in South Africa such as bank accounts, properties, trusts, shares and policies).
Where there is a double taxation agreement signed between South Africa and the State in which you are a tax resident, the double taxation agreement will determine which country has taxing rights in respect of the relevant income earned. Where both South Africa and the State in which you are a tax resident have taxing rights, you will need to claim foreign tax credits from that State in respect of the taxes already paid in South Africa.
The double taxation agreement between South Africa and the State in which you are a tax resident will ascertain which country has taxing rights in respect of such income. Where the double taxation agreement is silent on the matter or there is no double taxation agreement between the two countries, you would need to claim foreign tax credits in respect of the taxes already paid in South Africa in the State in which you are a tax resident.
It is much quicker for SARS to verify and process refunds to a South African account than for a foreign bank account.