Pretoria - The difficulties most companies face in trying to make use of government incentives are the lengthy administration process and following the correct procedures, according to Brian Verwey of BCE Consulting, a customs and incentive service provider.
BCE has, therefore, opened a specialised business unit to provide SA businesses with advice on employment tax incentives (ETI).
“As a result of the strong demand for incentive support, we took the decision to invest in a dedicated businesss unit with the core focus on employment incentives”, said Verwey.
BCE assists importers, manufacturers and component suppliers in obtaining the maximum benefit from current government incentive programmes.
“We are focused on extracting cash benefits for our clients from available refund and incentive opportunities offered by the department of trade and industry (dti)," said Verwey.
“The ETI is an incentive that was introduced by government to encourage employers to hire young unskilled labor. It allows for all races and genders and uses basic criteria to determine whether you qualify for immediate monthly cash benefits.”
According to Francois Truter, chief director of the dti's incentive development administration division (Idad), ETI differ from other incentives since there is no application process.
It is a self-assessment system, companies receive the benefit each month, there is no waiting and companies or business owners need only pay the balance of the Paye liability after deducting the credit.
If companies never claimed, the claim would be allowed to be backdated to the date of employment, as far back as January 1 2014.
Any unclaimed amounts per employee per month are rolled forward and companies will not pay tax or Vat on the credit or “cash back” they receive, said Verwey.
He warned that it is important to get the self-assessment offered right as the SA Revenue Service (Sars) will impose substantial penalties for getting it wrong as it wants to prevent business owners from abusing the incentive.
- Fin24
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