For individual provisional taxpayers and for companies with a February year-end, the end of August brings yet another tax deadline: the first provisional tax payment for the 2027 tax year, covering the period 1 March 2026 – 28 February 2027. Find out here why income tax payments seem to roll round so very often, and what you need to do to survive this first income tax deadline for the current tax year.

Every business leader, from the corner office to the corner store, has a story they wish they could rewrite. A product launched too early, a hire made too hastily, a pivot that led off a cliff. Despite this, bad business decisions are not a sign of a bad leader, they are simply a sign that a leader is human. The real measure of a leader is not whether they stumble, but how they recover. Here is what the evidence says you should do when you make a mistake.

As cloud-based software delivery has lowered the barrier to adoption, many companies are starting to lose track of the number of software subscriptions they have. This phenomenon is known as “SaaS creep” (SaaS stands for Software as a Service) and research suggests that the problem is considerably larger than most leaders recognise. The financial consequences are compounding, and, for organisations without formal oversight, almost entirely invisible.

Running a business in South Africa is a challenge. Quite apart from the political and economic conditions, every business must also comply with a web of governance, regulatory, tax, and labour law requirements. It’s a massive cost burden, but failing to comply can mean penalties, lost business opportunities, and even deregistration. Here’s how we can turn your compliance into a strategic strength, while also saving your business a substantial amount of time, cost, and hassle.

SARS’s “The Power of Done” campaign promotes seamless, digital tax compliance for Tax Filing Season 2026. The season officially opens on 13 July, although auto-assessed taxpayers will receive notifications from 1 to 12 July. Find out here what the deadlines are, which apply to you, how to “experience The Power of Done”, and what to do if you are auto-assessed (and if not). Hot Tip: For a hassle-free Tax Filing Season 2026, simply rely on our expertise.

Millennials and Gen Z – two generations raised on social media, shaped by climate anxiety, and equipped with instant access to information – are now rewriting the rules of consumer behaviour. For these switched-on generations, purchases are a statement of identity. Brands that stand for environmental stewardship, fair labour, and community investment are winning a market share that older marketing models never anticipated. Here’s how you can make this trend work for you.

Understanding the tax benefits and limitations of a trust or special trust is crucial to ensuring the trust beneficiaries are provided for as intended. South Africans can choose between several different trust structures, each with different purposes, benefits and limitations. Choosing the right structure for your situation is a make-or-break decision that demands professional advice.

Big businesses have big budgets, big teams, and big safety nets. Small businesses have none of these things … And at times this can be to their advantage. The mistake many small business owners make is looking up towards their conglomerate competition and trying to replicate what they see. In fact, the playbook that works for a multinational can actually destroy smaller operations. This article explains why.

Particularly in volatile economic times like these, effective budgeting is a critical driver of business success. This is because a budget enables sustainable growth by aligning financial resources with strategic business goals. We can assist you to create well-structured budgets that provide a roadmap for navigating the ongoing market ups and downs, while maintaining cashflow and identifying opportunities for investment.

Personal crises, such as bereavement, divorce, illness, and mental health challenges, are a reality of life, and how you respond when your employee is struggling says everything about you as a leader. Handle the situation badly and you risk losing a good person. Handle it well and you’ll not only be doing the right thing, but you could also forge one of the most loyal working relationships of your career.

While everyone’s talking about AI, trends are emerging that show the most successful small businesses have returned to the fundamentals: maximising every minute and tightening the leaks in local operations. Running a business in today’s topsy-turvy world is all about making the machine run smoother, ensuring that every hour spent translates directly into the bottom line and this is how they are doing it.

This tax season marks an important shift for trusts, which are now subject to heightened reporting requirements, regardless of activity, as well as automated penalties for non-compliance starting on 4 May 2026. If you have a non-compliant trust, even if it is inactive, please speak to us. SARS has taken a zero-tolerance approach to trust compliance, increasing scrutiny of trust administration and automatically applying ongoing penalties and interest that can rapidly accumulate.

If you’re a small business owner aged 55 or older, the 2026 Budget contained some very good news. Not only has the CGT exemption on the sale of small business by older persons been increased, but the definition of “small business” has also been expanded. This could make a big difference to your retirement situation, not to mention the future of your business. Find out here what the new limits and conditions are, and how they might affect the decision and timing of a business sale.

Client concentration risk can sink a healthy business faster than falling sales. When one customer accounts for too much revenue, cash flow, valuation, and even survival hinge on decisions you don’t control. Here we explain the “40% Rule.” What it is, why lenders and investors care about it, and how to manage concentration risk before it manages you.

Many small business owners fall into the “do it all” trap. You start with passion, but soon find yourself buried in tasks that have nothing to do with why you launched your venture. This leads to chronic burnout. You are busy, but are you productive? This feeling of being overwhelmed often stems from a failure to distinguish between being busy and making progress. That’s why you have to identify the “invisible work” that consumes your energy without ever appearing on a customer’s invoice or adding real value.

The Annual Employer Reconciliation Declaration (EMP501) remains a focus area for SARS. Employers have until the end of May to submit their declarations for the period 1 March 2025 to 28 February 2026. We invite you to rely on our expertise to ensure compliance with this legal requirement, as submitting incorrect or incomplete declarations (or missing the deadline) will cause additional work, penalties, delays and hassles for you and your employees.

Growth feels like progress. Sales increase, staff numbers rise, and profit improves. Yet each of these shifts changes your tax position. Here we examine how business expansion can trigger VAT obligations, higher provisional tax payments, payroll risk, structural strain, and cash flow pressure. Then we discuss what small business owners should address before growth creates avoidable tax exposure.

The recent increases in the compulsory VAT registration threshold to R2.3 million and in the voluntary registration threshold to R120,000 are widely welcomed. It will certainly ease the administrative burden on small businesses and the strain on their cash flow. Businesses that do not exceed the higher threshold on 1 April 2026 may apply to deregister for VAT. But be certain to rely on our expertise when making this decision, as it’s fraught with potentially costly consequences.

While on the surface they are just a spot of fun, team building exercises are actually a strategic investment in your business culture and performance. Done well, team building strengthens communication, fosters trust, and boosts morale. Done poorly, it feels like a forced afternoon that costs money and delivers little. As a small business owner, you need team building events that produce tangible improvements. Here’s how to do that.

The global minimum tax (GMT) – called an “agreement that will really change the world” – will be implemented in South Africa by SARS in 2026/27. While it may not impact your business directly, it should ultimately reduce your share of the tax burden by ensuring all multinational enterprises (MNEs) contribute their fair share of local taxes. SARS is actively preparing and the GMT registration and notification functionality on the eFiling platform went live on 16 March 2026. Find out here why specialist advice will be ever more important for local and global taxpayers in South Africa.

Taxpayers will enjoy long-awaited tax relief with much good news contained in the 2026 Budget. It scrapped the previously announced R20 billion in tax increases, and instead provides relief for taxpayers, assists small businesses and encourages savings by adjusting various tax brackets, caps and limits. There is also real optimism about the country’s economic growth prospects. So much so that Budget 2026 has been called a fiscal turning point for SA, as important milestones are achieved. Read more good news from the Budget here…

Budget 2026 has brought long-overdue relief to taxpayers by not imposing VAT or income tax hikes and by adjusting the tables for tax rates, rebates and credits for inflation. Of course, some tax hikes were always going to happen: inflation-linked increases on sin taxes took effect on 25 February already and the fuel levies also increased. This selection of official SARS Tax Tables and other useful resources will help clarify your tax position for the new tax year. Then follow the link to Fin 24’s Budget Calculator (just follow the four-step process) to do your own calculation.

For many small business owners, cash flow problems feel like a financial puzzle that’s impossible to figure out. It’s a numbers game that puts us at the mercy of the markets, and our clients’ payment terms. But what if the real issue isn’t the figures? When it comes down to it, cash flow issues have a lot more to do with our behavioural patterns than we sometimes believe.

By handling almost instantly the repetitive, menial bookkeeping tasks that previously consumed much company time and resources, Artificial Intelligence is fundamentally streamlining accounting processes. AI can reduce costs, minimise risks, and provide real-time business performance insights faster than a human. Freeing up you and your team to focus on growing the business.

06 March – PAYE submissions and payments 25 March – VAT manual submissions and payments 30 March – Excise duty payments 31 March – End of the 2025/6 Financial year, VAT electronic submissions and payments & CIT Provisional Tax payments where applicable.

The second provisional tax deadline for the 2026 financial year is just days away on 27 February 2026. This is an important and tricky deadline, because this second provisional tax estimate must be quite accurate (within 80–90% of actual taxable income) to avoid SARS’ stiff under-estimation penalty. Find out how we can help you to meet this important deadline with the highest accuracy.

Business culture is obsessed with speed. In a world where motion, and constant optimisation is the dream, doing nothing can look like failure. Entrepreneurs, CEOs and other leaders are praised for quick decision making, rapid iteration, and relentless action, yet many of the highest performers quietly practise the opposite at critical moments. They pause. They wait. They refuse to react. Strategic inaction is often one of the most disciplined and profitable decisions a business leader can make.

As we approach the end of the tax year, now is an ideal time to make a few strategic adjustments that can strengthen your financial position. These steps are simple, high-impact, and designed to help you make the most of the tax incentives available to South Africans. Read on to make sure you end the tax year right.

Diversification is treated as a business virtue so unquestioned it borders on dogma. Expand the product line. Enter new markets. Hedge every risk. Spread exposure everywhere. Yet for many entrepreneurs, diversification may actually bring more risk than it solves. We examine whether more really is safer, and explore why simplicity, not spread, is often the real competitive advantage. Diversification makes perfect investment sense – but it doesn’t always make business sense.

06 February – PAYE submissions and payments 25 February – VAT manual submissions and payments 26 February – Excise duty payments 27 February – VAT electronic submissions and payments, CIT Provisional Tax payments where applicable and PIT Second Provisional Tax payments for the 2026 year of assessment.