BEE Exemption Certificate

[Yvonne]

Dave
Would you have any idea if the figure for "labor costs" would be total payroll inclusive of Owners income?
The owners of SME's are generally fully employed in their businesses, and the S.A.R.S. defines them as employees for taxation.

As our turnover is under R5 million and we have an exemption I presume this is not of concern right now, but I am just curious if I have perhaps given incorrect information, at 2% no problem, but at 25% if it was "labor" only, our figure would be less than 25%.

Yvonne

[Dave A]

Dave
Would you have any idea if the figure for "labor costs" would be total payroll inclusive of Owners income?

If by "owners income" you mean the salary of a member, director or working shareholder in a cc/company, then yes.

The sole proprietor situation would be slightly different. There you don't draw a salary - you have drawings from profits. In that situation declaring drawings as part of payroll and then adding the profits as required for the formula would be double counting. So there the payroll total would exclude the drawings of the sole proprietor, but the effect is offset by the profit part of the formula.

[jaq316]

the quoted rate for certification is averaging about R850.00.

You must be kidding. I got my EME certificate from ecert.co.za. Only R99! And, what is more... They seem to have an ABVA registered agency issuing their certificates.

[Dave A]

Or you can get your EME certificate for free at the DTI's BEE website

[jaq316]

That is true, but it is only an auditors letter.
Most of my clients requires an EME certificate issued by an ABVA registered agency. The auditors letter simply won't do.

[Dave A]

Not quite.

You get the form which you fill out and get your auditor to sign off. Then you fax it to them and...
you get a certificate.

Who's going to argue with a certificate from the DTI? In my experience no-one so far and we've got lots of clients who have asked.

And if anyone ever questioned it, I'd send them to the verification search page, tell them the relevant number (the one for our pest control company is BEE8610592 if you want to try it out) and end of debate.

There's a fee to be listed on their database for that online search functionality - can't remember how much offhand but it's pretty nominal. But the certificate is free.

BTW - If your clients are insisting on a certificate issued by an ABVA registered agency at the moment, get them to read about this extension.

[tec0]

In the methodology of layman I thought the following was true but I DO NOT KNOW.

Start > Get an accredited accountant.
Step1 > Get a black partner and give him 50.1% ownership.
Step2 > Associate only with black empowered companies that is credited as such.
Step3 > Sign over 50.1% of all profit over to black partner.
Step4 > Black Partner must have an ACTIVE role in Management and employment of staff.
Step5 > Get credited as a BEE corporation to become favourable as a Contractor.
Step6 > Get on the vender-list “impossible to do�
Step7 > File for closure and cut your losses.

I had to register for closure because my BEE took more than HALF of everything and had zero input however he promised that we would have access to his fabrication facility. Turns out the fabrication facility was never his to start with. So yes we were doomed to fail. All my losses was cash only based but it was all “my money� fortunately I didn’t finance trough a bank-loan. Total los R70000 and all my life savings. This was 4 years ago now.

So please for the Layman; what are the correct steps? If you would be so kind to show me the error of my ways.

[Morticia]

Turns out there are two types of BEE expert. Some, like Emex Trust, are “verification agencies�, authorised to provide businesses with official reports verifying their BEE status. Many belong to the ABVA (Association of BEE Verification Agencies), whose website says that its raison d’être is to “lead the black economic empowerment verification industry ... to facilitate the accreditation of qualifying BEE verification agencies ... and guide the development of the industry�.

The directorate of this section 21 company looks remarkably like your typical South African company – a black chair, five white directors and one coloured director. Which suggests that honkies are responsible for much of the darkie verification going on.

The other group of experts, “BEE consultants�, simply assist businesses that opt for self-assessment. And it’s these guys who are fed up. In May eleven BEE consultants – led by one Ivan van der Merwe – lodged a complaint with the Competition Commission against the Department of Trade and Industry and the ABVA, the crux of which is that these entities are squeezing the BEE consultants out of business.

http://www.noseweek.co.za/article.ph...t_article=2051