On 9th June 2011 top industry players braved the rain, sleet and snow to get to Johannesburg for the black-tie highlight of the year, the FIA Awards. Winners at this event are selected by FIA brokers themselves and reflect how the intermediary fraternity views major underwriters and product providers.
CATEGORY WINNERS
Short-Term Insurer of the Year: Personal Lines – HOLLARD
Short-Term Insurer of the Year: Commercial Lines – SANTAM
Short-Term Insurer of the Year: Corporate – SANTAM
Underwriting Manager of the Year – COMMERCIAL & INDUSTRIAL ACCEPTANCES
Long-Term Insurer of the Year – Risk Product LIBERTY
Investment Product Supplier of the Year: Retail Investments – STANLIB
Long-Term Insurer of the Year: Recurring Savings – DISCOVERY LIFE
Employee Benefits Product supplier of the Year – SANLAM
Health Care Product Supplier of the Year – DISCOVERY HEALTH
Source: RISKSA
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Saturday, May 7, 2011
New investment rules for retirement funds
The third and final version of the new prudential investment regulations, which govern how your retirement savings may be invested, was published in February 2011.
Known as Regulation 28 of the Pension Funds Act, the primary aim of the regulations is to reduce the risk taken by a retirement fund when it invests your retirement savings by stipulating the maximum percentage of its assets that the fund may invest in an asset class (and sub-class).
For example, a fund may not invest more than 75 percent in equities, whether inside or outside South Africa, and there is a further limit measured by the value of a company. So a fund may own no more than 15 percent of a company that is worth R20 billion or more.
A secondary objective is to channel investments in a way that they support economic development and growth.
The regulations come into effect on July 1. Funds that are out of kilter with the regulations and cannot readjust their holdings by July 1 must apply for an extension before May 31.
Individual retirement fund contracts bought before April 1 this year will be exempt from the new provisions.
The regulations have been the subject of months of negotiations between National Treasury and the retirement fund industry. The industry pushed for the rules to be relaxed, whereas the treasury sought to update the regulations to cover the ever-developing world of investments while ensuring that members are protected.
A major focus has been the inclusion of the foreign investment exposure of retirement funds.
For example, the treasury has insisted that the regulations be applied at member level and not at fund level. Currently, many funds, particularly retirement annuity and preservation funds, apply the regulations only at fund level, allowing individual members to side-step the regulations so they can, for example, be invested fully offshore. This, in turn, may mean that other members are denied access to foreign investments.
Other changes in the final version include the easing of restrictions on debt to allow more investment in corporate debt issued by listed companies and regulated entities where the government does not provide a guarantee on the debt.
The limits on alternative investments, such as private equity funds and hedge funds, have also been eased.
February 27 2011 at 12:15pm
Source: IOL/Bruce Cameron
Source: IOL/Bruce Cameron
Saturday, April 23, 2011
The best performing Prudential Funds
Yesterday I did an analysis of the performances of prudential funds with data provided by Equinox. The best Prudential Funds over the last 5 years are:
Coronation Balanced Plus Fund 71.01%
Hermes Managed Fund (R) 69.48%
Allan Gray Balanced Fund 68.12%
Prudential Balanced Fund 59.26%
Coronation, Allan Gray and Prudential continue to top the ranking in this category.
Coronation Balanced Plus Fund 71.01%
Hermes Managed Fund (R) 69.48%
Allan Gray Balanced Fund 68.12%
Prudential Balanced Fund 59.26%
Coronation, Allan Gray and Prudential continue to top the ranking in this category.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Financial doctor can keep your family in good health
WHAT is the medical general practitioner's role, and why do we have our own "family doctor"?
In most cases there is a close relationship between the family doctor and the members of the family. It goes a lot deeper than just medical advice.
He (or she) has been involved in births, deaths, serious illnesses and very often psychological problems. He knows how to handle each member of the family, what their likes or dislikes, hobbies and professions are, and probably sees his aim as ensuring overall family health rather than diagnosis and treatment of specific ailments.
As much as we rely on these "members of the family" they are not specialists. They may be able to perform a minor operation, but they aren't surgeons. One of their key roles is to identify where specialist treatment is necessary. They are the key component of overall health protection - not the specialist.
As the GP is part of the family and the overall controller of physical health, so too should there be a family doctor for financial matters.
This "financial doctor" must have a solid basis in knowledge of all areas relating to the family's finances.
These would include issues such as risk and debt management, investment and retirement planning, tax structuring and estate planning as well as fund manager selection. This financial doctor should also have six to seven years of training and be able to show (as a medical GP can do) he has a solid grounding in these areas.
He should also be able to call on the specialists, such as the fund managers, the tax advisers, and estate administrators, when required.
Confusion often exists over the roles of financial adviser and fund manager. It's really quite simple. If you went to a fund manager (whose skill should be in share selection) and presented him with your entire financial scenario, he would not have the expertise to produce an overall plan. Just the same as going to a surgeon to ask about a torn muscle will probably also be a waste of time.
A good financial adviser should be as close and as important to your family as a good family doctor. The real problem is that it is much more difficult to select a financial doctor as there are no minimum standards.
How do you know whether the financial adviser is a "financial doctor" or simply a retreaded insurance salesman? You need to spend time scrutinising the infrastructural support, the way his business is being run, qualifications, and most importantly, how he will make money out of you. This will tell you whether he is interested in your long-term health, or merely going to perform some surgery to separate you from your money.
Source: http://www.btimes.co.za/98/0705/btmoney/money10.htm
In most cases there is a close relationship between the family doctor and the members of the family. It goes a lot deeper than just medical advice.
He (or she) has been involved in births, deaths, serious illnesses and very often psychological problems. He knows how to handle each member of the family, what their likes or dislikes, hobbies and professions are, and probably sees his aim as ensuring overall family health rather than diagnosis and treatment of specific ailments.
As much as we rely on these "members of the family" they are not specialists. They may be able to perform a minor operation, but they aren't surgeons. One of their key roles is to identify where specialist treatment is necessary. They are the key component of overall health protection - not the specialist.
As the GP is part of the family and the overall controller of physical health, so too should there be a family doctor for financial matters.
This "financial doctor" must have a solid basis in knowledge of all areas relating to the family's finances.
These would include issues such as risk and debt management, investment and retirement planning, tax structuring and estate planning as well as fund manager selection. This financial doctor should also have six to seven years of training and be able to show (as a medical GP can do) he has a solid grounding in these areas.
He should also be able to call on the specialists, such as the fund managers, the tax advisers, and estate administrators, when required.
Confusion often exists over the roles of financial adviser and fund manager. It's really quite simple. If you went to a fund manager (whose skill should be in share selection) and presented him with your entire financial scenario, he would not have the expertise to produce an overall plan. Just the same as going to a surgeon to ask about a torn muscle will probably also be a waste of time.
A good financial adviser should be as close and as important to your family as a good family doctor. The real problem is that it is much more difficult to select a financial doctor as there are no minimum standards.
How do you know whether the financial adviser is a "financial doctor" or simply a retreaded insurance salesman? You need to spend time scrutinising the infrastructural support, the way his business is being run, qualifications, and most importantly, how he will make money out of you. This will tell you whether he is interested in your long-term health, or merely going to perform some surgery to separate you from your money.
Source: http://www.btimes.co.za/98/0705/btmoney/money10.htm
Friday, July 23, 2010
PAYE employers will have to register all staff for tax
Source: Personal Finance
For the 2010/11 tax year, all employers registered for Pay As You Earn will have to ensure that their employees have tax numbers, even if these employees do not qualify to pay tax.
The South African Revenue Service (SARS) plans to make it compulsory for anyone who is paid by an employer that is registered for Pay As You Earn (PAYE) to register as a taxpayer, even if they earn below the tax threshold or are employed part time.
The new requirement will be mandatory from August this year, when employers are expected to submit the first of two declarations on PAYE deducted from their employees.
By then SARS expects to have introduced an online registration process that employers can use to register employees who do not have tax numbers, Mark Kingon, the group executive of business systems at SARS, says.
But already employers in at least one industry are refusing to hire casual or freelance employees who do not have tax numbers.
As part of its drive to modernise and improve tax processes for all employees, SARS is introducing requirements with which employers must comply when submitting their PAYE declarations. Some of the new requirements - but not the one that pertains to submitting tax numbers for all employees - apply to the current employers' tax season, which began this month.
Employers have until May 31 to submit information to SARS about payments made to you during the tax year that ended on February 28 this year. SARS will use this information to pre-populate your income tax return.
But in August, when employers submit their first PAYE reconciliations for the current tax year (March 2010 to February 2011), it will be mandatory for your employer to submit a tax number for you. This will assist SARS to match the information on the income tax certificates (also known as IRP5 and IT3(a) certificates) that were issued to you.
Employers can then use the online registration process to register any employees who do not have tax numbers, Kingon says.
Employers in the film industry, which uses many casual or freelance employees - such as extras, crew workers and models - who are not currently registered for tax, are insisting that casual workers apply for tax numbers now, and employers will not hire such people if they do not have a tax number, Derek Serra, the head of the Casting Agencies Association, says. These workers may be employed for a particular film shoot but may not still be in employment in August, when SARS introduces its online registration process.
Serra says production houses may be loathe to take on the task of registering hundreds of extras who, until now, may not have needed a tax number. He says SARS should have informed workers of the need to be registered and how they should have gone about it.
Tax thresholds
If you are in what SARS refers to as standard employment, you are required to register for tax if your taxable income exceeds the greater of R60 000 or the tax threshold. The tax threshold is currently R57 000 a year for people below the age of 65 and R88 528 a year for people over the age of 65. If you work for an employer for more than 22 hours a week, you are regarded as being in standard employment for income tax purposes.
SARS has also announced that Standard Income Tax on Employees (SITE) will be scrapped from next year, when the tax threshold is likely to reach the threshold to which SITE is levied.
For the past two years, SARS has also not required taxpayers who earn R120 000 a year or less from a single employer to submit a tax return.
But Kingon says that although employees might not be required to apply to register for tax or to submit a tax return, this does not prevent SARS from registering you for tax and issuing you with a tax number. SARS wants employers to register all their employees and to issue them with tax numbers, Kingon says.
Currently, you can receive payments for standard employment from multiple employers that individually amount to less than the tax threshold.
If your employers are unaware that you are working for more than one company, they may not deduct the requisite tax even if your overall payments exceed R60 000 for the year.
SARS will, however, be able to issue tax returns to employees who are liable for tax if they are registered for tax.
If you are employed on an irregular or occasional basis and are paid daily or are paid casual commission, you are regarded as being in non-standard employment, and you will pay tax at a rate of 25 percent of your income. This also applies to part-time lecturers and the office bearers of organisations who earn honoraria. This tax may be refunded when you are assessed at the end of the tax year if your taxable earnings for the tax year do not warrant the tax.
Employers will also be required to register taxpayers in non-standard employment.
From this tax year, SARS will expect your employer to supply it with your banking details if you are paid directly via a bank transfer. If you are paid in cash or paid through a third party, such as a casting agency, your employer will not have to provide SARS with your banking details.
For next year's tax season, your employer will also have to provide SARS with your residential address.
Anthea Scholtz, a tax director at Deloitte, says that if you are registered for income tax, you should be aware that you have various responsibilities, and SARS may impose penalties if you fail to fulfil them. You should, she says, make sure that you meet your obligations.
For the 2010/11 tax year, all employers registered for Pay As You Earn will have to ensure that their employees have tax numbers, even if these employees do not qualify to pay tax.
The South African Revenue Service (SARS) plans to make it compulsory for anyone who is paid by an employer that is registered for Pay As You Earn (PAYE) to register as a taxpayer, even if they earn below the tax threshold or are employed part time.
The new requirement will be mandatory from August this year, when employers are expected to submit the first of two declarations on PAYE deducted from their employees.
By then SARS expects to have introduced an online registration process that employers can use to register employees who do not have tax numbers, Mark Kingon, the group executive of business systems at SARS, says.
But already employers in at least one industry are refusing to hire casual or freelance employees who do not have tax numbers.
As part of its drive to modernise and improve tax processes for all employees, SARS is introducing requirements with which employers must comply when submitting their PAYE declarations. Some of the new requirements - but not the one that pertains to submitting tax numbers for all employees - apply to the current employers' tax season, which began this month.
Employers have until May 31 to submit information to SARS about payments made to you during the tax year that ended on February 28 this year. SARS will use this information to pre-populate your income tax return.
But in August, when employers submit their first PAYE reconciliations for the current tax year (March 2010 to February 2011), it will be mandatory for your employer to submit a tax number for you. This will assist SARS to match the information on the income tax certificates (also known as IRP5 and IT3(a) certificates) that were issued to you.
Employers can then use the online registration process to register any employees who do not have tax numbers, Kingon says.
Employers in the film industry, which uses many casual or freelance employees - such as extras, crew workers and models - who are not currently registered for tax, are insisting that casual workers apply for tax numbers now, and employers will not hire such people if they do not have a tax number, Derek Serra, the head of the Casting Agencies Association, says. These workers may be employed for a particular film shoot but may not still be in employment in August, when SARS introduces its online registration process.
Serra says production houses may be loathe to take on the task of registering hundreds of extras who, until now, may not have needed a tax number. He says SARS should have informed workers of the need to be registered and how they should have gone about it.
Tax thresholds
If you are in what SARS refers to as standard employment, you are required to register for tax if your taxable income exceeds the greater of R60 000 or the tax threshold. The tax threshold is currently R57 000 a year for people below the age of 65 and R88 528 a year for people over the age of 65. If you work for an employer for more than 22 hours a week, you are regarded as being in standard employment for income tax purposes.
SARS has also announced that Standard Income Tax on Employees (SITE) will be scrapped from next year, when the tax threshold is likely to reach the threshold to which SITE is levied.
For the past two years, SARS has also not required taxpayers who earn R120 000 a year or less from a single employer to submit a tax return.
But Kingon says that although employees might not be required to apply to register for tax or to submit a tax return, this does not prevent SARS from registering you for tax and issuing you with a tax number. SARS wants employers to register all their employees and to issue them with tax numbers, Kingon says.
Currently, you can receive payments for standard employment from multiple employers that individually amount to less than the tax threshold.
If your employers are unaware that you are working for more than one company, they may not deduct the requisite tax even if your overall payments exceed R60 000 for the year.
SARS will, however, be able to issue tax returns to employees who are liable for tax if they are registered for tax.
If you are employed on an irregular or occasional basis and are paid daily or are paid casual commission, you are regarded as being in non-standard employment, and you will pay tax at a rate of 25 percent of your income. This also applies to part-time lecturers and the office bearers of organisations who earn honoraria. This tax may be refunded when you are assessed at the end of the tax year if your taxable earnings for the tax year do not warrant the tax.
Employers will also be required to register taxpayers in non-standard employment.
From this tax year, SARS will expect your employer to supply it with your banking details if you are paid directly via a bank transfer. If you are paid in cash or paid through a third party, such as a casting agency, your employer will not have to provide SARS with your banking details.
For next year's tax season, your employer will also have to provide SARS with your residential address.
Anthea Scholtz, a tax director at Deloitte, says that if you are registered for income tax, you should be aware that you have various responsibilities, and SARS may impose penalties if you fail to fulfil them. You should, she says, make sure that you meet your obligations.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
FSB takes aim at adviser incentives that harm you
Financial services companies that offer financial advisers significant cash lump sums, often in the millions of rands, and other incentives, such as share options, to switch employers, often to the detriment of consumers, are in the firing line of the regulator, the Financial Services Board (FSB).
The FSB's recently published draft regulations aim to strictly control conflict-of-interest situations where the interests of consumers are placed below those of, for example, financial product providers and their sales forces.
The regulations are due to be partially implemented in October this year, with the full force of the regulations in place by April next year. But Gerry Anderson, FSB deputy executive in charge of market conduct, warns that even now financial advisers should tread wearily, because the financial advice ombud will take the payment of incentives into account when making determinations on advice issues.
Incentive packages for independent advisers and representatives often come with tough sales targets that are seen as a major cause of the product-switching (known in the industry as "churn") scourge undermining the wealth of individuals.
To read more, click http://www.persfin.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5520612
The FSB's recently published draft regulations aim to strictly control conflict-of-interest situations where the interests of consumers are placed below those of, for example, financial product providers and their sales forces.
The regulations are due to be partially implemented in October this year, with the full force of the regulations in place by April next year. But Gerry Anderson, FSB deputy executive in charge of market conduct, warns that even now financial advisers should tread wearily, because the financial advice ombud will take the payment of incentives into account when making determinations on advice issues.
Incentive packages for independent advisers and representatives often come with tough sales targets that are seen as a major cause of the product-switching (known in the industry as "churn") scourge undermining the wealth of individuals.
To read more, click http://www.persfin.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5520612
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
PAYE employers will have to register all staff for tax
For the 2010/11 tax year, all employers registered for Pay As You Earn will have to ensure that their employees have tax numbers, even if these employees do not qualify to pay tax.
By Laura du Preez
The South African Revenue Service (SARS) plans to make it compulsory for anyone who is paid by an employer that is registered for Pay As You Earn (PAYE) to register as a taxpayer, even if they earn below the tax threshold or are employed part time.
The new requirement will be mandatory from August this year, when employers are expected to submit the first of two declarations on PAYE deducted from their employees.
By then SARS expects to have introduced an online registration process that employers can use to register employees who do not have tax numbers, Mark Kingon, the group executive of business systems at SARS, says.
But already employers in at least one industry are refusing to hire casual or freelance employees who do not have tax numbers.
As part of its drive to modernise and improve tax processes for all employees, SARS is introducing requirements with which employers must comply when submitting their PAYE declarations. Some of the new requirements - but not the one that pertains to submitting tax numbers for all employees - apply to the current employers' tax season, which began this month.
Employers have until May 31 to submit information to SARS about payments made to you during the tax year that ended on February 28 this year. SARS will use this information to pre-populate your income tax return.
But in August, when employers submit their first PAYE reconciliations for the current tax year (March 2010 to February 2011), it will be mandatory for your employer to submit a tax number for you. This will assist SARS to match the information on the income tax certificates (also known as IRP5 and IT3(a) certificates) that were issued to you.
Employers can then use the online registration process to register any employees who do not have tax numbers, Kingon says.
Employers in the film industry, which uses many casual or freelance employees - such as extras, crew workers and models - who are not currently registered for tax, are insisting that casual workers apply for tax numbers now, and employers will not hire such people if they do not have a tax number, Derek Serra, the head of the Casting Agencies Association, says. These workers may be employed for a particular film shoot but may not still be in employment in August, when SARS introduces its online registration process.
Serra says production houses may be loathe to take on the task of registering hundreds of extras who, until now, may not have needed a tax number. He says SARS should have informed workers of the need to be registered and how they should have gone about it.
Tax thresholds
If you are in what SARS refers to as standard employment, you are required to register for tax if your taxable income exceeds the greater of R60 000 or the tax threshold. The tax threshold is currently R57 000 a year for people below the age of 65 and R88 528 a year for people over the age of 65. If you work for an employer for more than 22 hours a week, you are regarded as being in standard employment for income tax purposes.
SARS has also announced that Standard Income Tax on Employees (SITE) will be scrapped from next year, when the tax threshold is likely to reach the threshold to which SITE is levied.
For the past two years, SARS has also not required taxpayers who earn R120 000 a year or less from a single employer to submit a tax return.
But Kingon says that although employees might not be required to apply to register for tax or to submit a tax return, this does not prevent SARS from registering you for tax and issuing you with a tax number. SARS wants employers to register all their employees and to issue them with tax numbers, Kingon says.
Currently, you can receive payments for standard employment from multiple employers that individually amount to less than the tax threshold.
If your employers are unaware that you are working for more than one company, they may not deduct the requisite tax even if your overall payments exceed R60 000 for the year.
SARS will, however, be able to issue tax returns to employees who are liable for tax if they are registered for tax.
If you are employed on an irregular or occasional basis and are paid daily or are paid casual commission, you are regarded as being in non-standard employment, and you will pay tax at a rate of 25 percent of your income. This also applies to part-time lecturers and the office bearers of organisations who earn honoraria. This tax may be refunded when you are assessed at the end of the tax year if your taxable earnings for the tax year do not warrant the tax.
Employers will also be required to register taxpayers in non-standard employment.
From this tax year, SARS will expect your employer to supply it with your banking details if you are paid directly via a bank transfer. If you are paid in cash or paid through a third party, such as a casting agency, your employer will not have to provide SARS with your banking details.
For next year's tax season, your employer will also have to provide SARS with your residential address.
Anthea Scholtz, a tax director at Deloitte, says that if you are registered for income tax, you should be aware that you have various responsibilities, and SARS may impose penalties if you fail to fulfil them. You should, she says, make sure that you meet your obligations.
Source: Personal Finance
By Laura du Preez
The South African Revenue Service (SARS) plans to make it compulsory for anyone who is paid by an employer that is registered for Pay As You Earn (PAYE) to register as a taxpayer, even if they earn below the tax threshold or are employed part time.
The new requirement will be mandatory from August this year, when employers are expected to submit the first of two declarations on PAYE deducted from their employees.
By then SARS expects to have introduced an online registration process that employers can use to register employees who do not have tax numbers, Mark Kingon, the group executive of business systems at SARS, says.
But already employers in at least one industry are refusing to hire casual or freelance employees who do not have tax numbers.
As part of its drive to modernise and improve tax processes for all employees, SARS is introducing requirements with which employers must comply when submitting their PAYE declarations. Some of the new requirements - but not the one that pertains to submitting tax numbers for all employees - apply to the current employers' tax season, which began this month.
Employers have until May 31 to submit information to SARS about payments made to you during the tax year that ended on February 28 this year. SARS will use this information to pre-populate your income tax return.
But in August, when employers submit their first PAYE reconciliations for the current tax year (March 2010 to February 2011), it will be mandatory for your employer to submit a tax number for you. This will assist SARS to match the information on the income tax certificates (also known as IRP5 and IT3(a) certificates) that were issued to you.
Employers can then use the online registration process to register any employees who do not have tax numbers, Kingon says.
Employers in the film industry, which uses many casual or freelance employees - such as extras, crew workers and models - who are not currently registered for tax, are insisting that casual workers apply for tax numbers now, and employers will not hire such people if they do not have a tax number, Derek Serra, the head of the Casting Agencies Association, says. These workers may be employed for a particular film shoot but may not still be in employment in August, when SARS introduces its online registration process.
Serra says production houses may be loathe to take on the task of registering hundreds of extras who, until now, may not have needed a tax number. He says SARS should have informed workers of the need to be registered and how they should have gone about it.
Tax thresholds
If you are in what SARS refers to as standard employment, you are required to register for tax if your taxable income exceeds the greater of R60 000 or the tax threshold. The tax threshold is currently R57 000 a year for people below the age of 65 and R88 528 a year for people over the age of 65. If you work for an employer for more than 22 hours a week, you are regarded as being in standard employment for income tax purposes.
SARS has also announced that Standard Income Tax on Employees (SITE) will be scrapped from next year, when the tax threshold is likely to reach the threshold to which SITE is levied.
For the past two years, SARS has also not required taxpayers who earn R120 000 a year or less from a single employer to submit a tax return.
But Kingon says that although employees might not be required to apply to register for tax or to submit a tax return, this does not prevent SARS from registering you for tax and issuing you with a tax number. SARS wants employers to register all their employees and to issue them with tax numbers, Kingon says.
Currently, you can receive payments for standard employment from multiple employers that individually amount to less than the tax threshold.
If your employers are unaware that you are working for more than one company, they may not deduct the requisite tax even if your overall payments exceed R60 000 for the year.
SARS will, however, be able to issue tax returns to employees who are liable for tax if they are registered for tax.
If you are employed on an irregular or occasional basis and are paid daily or are paid casual commission, you are regarded as being in non-standard employment, and you will pay tax at a rate of 25 percent of your income. This also applies to part-time lecturers and the office bearers of organisations who earn honoraria. This tax may be refunded when you are assessed at the end of the tax year if your taxable earnings for the tax year do not warrant the tax.
Employers will also be required to register taxpayers in non-standard employment.
From this tax year, SARS will expect your employer to supply it with your banking details if you are paid directly via a bank transfer. If you are paid in cash or paid through a third party, such as a casting agency, your employer will not have to provide SARS with your banking details.
For next year's tax season, your employer will also have to provide SARS with your residential address.
Anthea Scholtz, a tax director at Deloitte, says that if you are registered for income tax, you should be aware that you have various responsibilities, and SARS may impose penalties if you fail to fulfil them. You should, she says, make sure that you meet your obligations.
Source: Personal Finance
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