SARS e-filing - how to save money by doing it yourself

By Hilary Levenstein

SARS E-filing allows you to submit PAYE/UIF, VAT, Provisional TAX etc via the internet.

I know that some people ask their accountants/bookkeepers to do the work for them, but it really is very simple to do it yourself.

Some businesses do their returns manually and drive to their SARS office to submit the forms and payments – wait in queues wasting valuable time. Often these forms are "lost" even though you have proof of submission.

The benefits of E-Filing

• Work whenever you want to.
• Not restricted to business hours.
• No long queues.
• Not reliant on posted forms.
• Forms always available on the site.
• Can refer to forms that have been submitted.
• Theoretically could be paper less and therefore no filing required.
• Very helpful pleasant staff in the call centre.
• One debit order. You don’t need to pay for PAYE/SDL & UIF separately.

It is so painless that I almost enjoy paying them my money!

We have written a user guide on how to register and to use SARS e-filing. I'll be happy to email it to you.

Debtors financing and invoice discounting

There are various ways of raising finance for your business such as overdrafts or loans. Debtors financing is another method to help businesses when they need cashflow.

Debtors financing is a way to raise finance by “selling your invoices” to a factoring house. If you find that your customers take a long time to pay you, and they are responsible companies with a good track record, a factoring house (even a division of your bank) will be prepared to advance you finance on the basis of you having invoiced your customers, and them having accepted the obligation to pay you. You can get up to 90% of the value of the invoice from the factoring house. So far, factoring and invoice discounting has been the realm of large companies, but there is an initiative to bring it to smaller businesses as well. A company called Validation Clearing Bureau is automating the entire process of arranging debtor finance. We at EconoAccounting have agreed to assist in this process by modifying EconoAccounting to work with the clearing bureau. We will keep you informed on progress on this exciting project.

Preserving wealth

by Keith Levenstein

We at EconoAccounting are concerned about making your business successful and you wealthy.We have recently been looking at ways for you to remain wealthy - how best to manage money, particularly when retirement is nearing. I understand that less than 7% of people can retire with sufficient capital to live comfortably.

I've recently come across a company who specialises in wealth preservation - Citadel. Their message to me is I must make my own profits from my career, or job or business, and then they can assist me in protecting that wealth - they are in the "private wealth-care" business. I've been working with Lee Irvine (you may remember him as one of our greatest cricketers of the 1970's) and he would love to hear from you.