de-registration alert

It is a criminal offence, for which company directors/secretaries or members of close corporations may be prosecuted, not to deliver a company’s/close corporation’s annual return within the prescribed period.

In addition, the Companies and Intellectual Property Office (CIPRO) may also deregister non-compliant companies and close corporations. Once de-registered, such companies and close corporations may no longer operate or do business. The assets of de-registered entities are regarded as bona vacantia and are forfeited to the State.

These are dire ramifications for non-compliant entities.

CIPRO publishes lists of non-compliant entities on its website which are in danger of deregistration. Please see www.cipro.co.za.

Changing paradigms in the field of medical malpractice: The “Full disclosure – early pay” approach Alina Marian MBChB LLB LLM

At least once in our lifetime, we will all be some doctor’s patient. We will abandon control over our corporal being and put it in that doctor’s ‘hands’, with the legitimate expectation that this stranger, who may barely know our name, would be the one to put an end to our pain. We will be prepared to trust that stranger with our life or the life of a loved one in exchange for nothing less than professional perfection.

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Some festive cheer from SARS!

If you were intent on transferring your primary residence from a trust or private company to a natural person, but baulked at the prospect of paying duties to the taxman; well, then, help is at hand in the form of the Taxation Laws Amendment Act of 2009.

You may qualify for an exemption from transfer duty!

Read more

Tourists! Get your VAT back

Value Added Tax, or VAT as it is commonly known, is charged on most goods, or services, purchased in South Africa. This is presently set at 14%. Foreigners must also pay this tax. However, they claim it back on items which leave the country with them.

In order therefore to claim your VAT back, you will need a tax invoice for the goods which you have purchased.

A proper tax invoice will comprise the following information: the words “tax invoice” displayed prominently, the date of issue of the tax invoice, reflect the seller’s name, address, VAT registration number (a ten digit number starting with the digit ‘4’), invoice number, a description of the goods purchased and the costs of the goods purchased with the VAT reflected separately; or inclusive with a statement that the price includes VAT.

Always therefore insist on a proper tax invoice when making your purchases.

Smile! You’re on candid camera

You and your car just had an early Xmas photo shoot on our beautiful roads – by the traffic authorities! Judging by the hollow feeling in your stomach, you just know that you will not be receiving good news from the City in a short while.

What do you do to ensure that all not Xmas cheer is sucked out of your soul? Read more

Challenge your credit record.

Some things in life are indeed free.  South African consumers are entitled to one free credit report each year. This is obviously only your own credit report. If you feel that your report is in any way inaccurate, then this is what you should do:

1. Contact the credit bureau concerned and raise an objection or lodge a complaint. The major credit bureaux are TransUnion ITC or Experian;
2. Once your objection or complaint has been lodged, the relevant credit bureau then has 20 days in which to resolve your issue;
3. If it is not able to do so, you may then refer the matter to the Credit Information Ombudsman;
4. Should the ombudsman not be able to resolve the matter, the National Credit Regulator will intervene on the request of the ombudsman.

Some useful contacts: TransUnion ITC ( 0861 482 482); Experian (0861 105 665)

Randall Titus & Associates is expanding

Randall Titus & Associates has exciting developments for 2010. We consistently strive to provide a better, and a wider, range of professional services to our many valued clients. To this end, and first in line, we are now happy to announce that we will soon be able to provide specialist services in medical and health law in the very near future. Read more

Outdoor advertising – proposed new by-law

The Municipality of Cape Town is presently engaged in a process of public hearings with respect to  a proposed new by-law regulating outdoor advertising. Meetings were held at the Cape Town Civic Centre on 22 and 23 October 2009. A particularly harsh and draconian aspect of the proposed by law is the fact that it seeks to outlaw transit advertising. Transit advertising is, in essence, advertising using purpose built trailers. Such trailers are typicall towed by vehicles around on public roads or, alternatively, parked at strategic areas. In many instances, these are public areas. Read more

Motorcycle Racer in Court over Reckless Driving.

After a night out drinking and dining with friends from the United Kingdom, professional motorcycle racer Lance Anton Isaacs lied to police at the scene of a collision involving his bakkie, the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court heard on Thursday. Read more