Tributum Newsletter #18

Hello

For those of you that don’t know the term “vloermoer”, its best described as a teacher or coach that very vociferously chastises the whole class or whole team for unacceptable behaviour or performance, instead of calling out individuals.   Now I think that is what President Ramaphosa did with his open letter to the ANC. He had a vloermoer.

The problem with a vloermoer is that it is normally those students or team players that already cared and were giving their best that are most affected. I daresay that may be the same with his vloermoer – the ANC members that actually care will be the ones that, well, care. For the rest, it seems that people in glass houses are throwing stones.

On the subjects of vloermoer, corruption and glass houses I am amazed by the circular logic of tax dodgers and speedsters. Don’t phone me and ask whether it’s a good idea to keep money earned abroad in the Dubai bank account of a friend so you don’t have to pay tax in South Africa. Don’t complain about fraud and corruption if you are happy to commit tax fraud… The same goes for the guy in the coffee shop that complains about the taxi drivers skipping red lights and after a sip of coffee brags about how he averaged 150km/h on his road trip from Cape Town to PE. Don’t complain about maniacal drivers if you are also one…

I am by no means suggesting that crime in SA is not a problem, but instead of complaining while culpable ourselves maybe we should start fighting crime by applying the “broken window” theory and clean up our own acts.

Spring day will mark the day when those that have not yet been auto assessed by SARS can file their tax returns. If you received your SMS about the auto assessment I hope you at least took the time to look at the assessment and return details before accepting the outcome. I also advise you to make sure that you file correctly. SARS is chasing money and they are getting more and more hardnosed in cases where they find errors. Don’t take a chance.

Hopefully with lockdown 2 there will be even more economic activity which should bode well for business. The road to recovery will be hard and long and there will be, and already has been, many victims along the way. I think that if you can keep your head above water and stay in business, there should be opportunity knocking next year this time. The other survivors will need your products or services and you will likely have less competition. Tough statement, but that is the reality.

Until next time. Stay afloat, keep breathing.