– by Noluthando Makhaza
The end of year season is fast approaching, and it is almost time to reflect on our new years’ resolutions. Nonetheless, as an education institution, we never to cease to teach, nor do we cease promoting the importance of learning new skills. Very recently, we hosted our second SARS Tax Workshop which was aimed at educating individuals about the importance of tax compliance in South Africa. Fundamentally, the purpose of the workshop was to merely provide information in an easily understandable format and was also intended to make the provisions of the legislation more accessible.
This workshop, once again, was successfully facilitated by Mr Martin Naidoo – a trainer from Branch Operations Engagement in KZN at the South African Revenue Services. Having worked at SARS for the past 11 years, Martin is extremely knowledgeable about various tax procedures including Income Tax, VAT, PAYE and E-filing. Martin doesn’t only offer his services to individuals, but also to practitioners, government and small businesses.
The workshop was attended by individuals from both public and private sector, entrepreneurs, students and individuals currently seeking employment. Such diverse calibre amongst the audience enabled the workshop to be very interesting as the question and answer session was more eye opening that our audience had anticipated.
Sharing her thoughts about the 2-hour session, Gabriela Khawula said that the workshop was extremely helpful and informative not only in terms of income tax but also regarding corporate tax. As a recent entrepreneur in the field of property development, this was a whole new topic to her, as she had never heard of the term before and what it implies. Furthermore, Gabriela recently graduated with her BCom qualification from UKZN in September this year and she also stated:
“As a UKZN alumni, it would be very beneficial for such topics to be included as part of the University curriculum as it will raise awareness about tax related topics and students will be more informed when they enter the working world. Such subjects are value adding, not only to students and workers but also to small business owners. It’s great that SARS is offering their services for free to everyone and we are grateful to UKZN Extended Learning for partnering with SARS.”
Such workshops are part of our CSI initiatives and such positive feedback inspires us to do more for our community. We are honoured to give back to those that see value in what we do.
We will be hosting more workshops of this nature next year. Please stay tuned to our social media platforms and website for details.