Concilio Tax
Accounting Services in Montagu

Concilio is an accounting, Western Cape, tax and audit firm in Stellenbosch, that focuses on the smaller client and individuals.

We have highly qualified staff holding professional degrees such as CA (SA), MBA and CIMA. Several incidents of childminders abusing young children have horrified the public. So it is good to discover that we are a world leader in renewable energy development and that this is making considerable strides towards resolving our energy problem. There is a perception that corporate governance applies only to government bodies and the large corporates. This is false as, in essence, corporate governance is the process of acting in the best interests of any business and its stakeholders. Government has followed through on its intention of improving the rights of temporary lower paid workers. The board of directors sets strategic direction and exercises control over the organisation. How does an organisation ensure it has an effective board of directors in place? It will give a good indication as to just how serious the government is about reining in debt. Ratings agencies have indicated that without a commitment to reducing debt South Africa’s national debt could attract junk status. Recently, the DTC’s overview on Macro Analysis was released to the public. The report sets out the framework for how the DTC will approach its task. But it also makes clear that tax is about the choices made by those in power and as a developmental state (where the state plays a leading role in the economy) we can expect our total tax burden to increase. The commission accepts that taxes need to be progressive to support reducing poverty and inequality. With this background the DTC sets out the key principles of a good tax system. Taxpayers should thus not change their behaviour to avoid tax. Those with more means should pay more tax than the poorer sections of the community. If the same rules apply to all taxpayers there will be less incentive to avoid taxes. Greater complexity will reduce transparency, raise administration and compliance costs and encourage avoidance. There will always be times when rules will need to change and these rules must be clearly articulated and stakeholders consulted. Each individual area (income tax, VAT etc) must have a well-thought-out rationale but the system needs to be also looked at in its totality. The eFiling system has clearly eased the cost of compliance and administration costs for SARS, but the taxpayer has felt an increased compliance burden for the past several years. Personal income tax is progressive and holds up relatively well in economic downturns. However, the DTC believes death duties will need to be an area of focus as there is too much avoidance via instruments like trusts. They have also mooted the possibility of an annual wealth tax. Whilst VAT is not a progressive tax, zero rating of basic foodstuffs brings more relief to lower income groups. The DTC plans to measure the efficiency of the VAT system to see if there is scope to increase collections without raising the rate of VAT. Global trends have to be considered, particularly as our CIT rate is high even against many other developing countries. There are also anomalies in CIT as many incentives have been added such as accelerated depreciation on plant and machinery. In other areas like customs, excise and ad valorem taxes, there is unlikely to be significant change.