* Companies Act - the business rule book for PTY's and JSE companies
* Close Corporations Act - the rule book for CCs
* Financial Intelligence Centre Act - the main reason your banker is so paranoid about getting your home address right.
* Basic Conditions of Employment Act - the main reason we can no longer follow the Caribbean style of staff motivation of "De Whipping will continue until De Morale Improves". Most of us know just one thing about this Act - if it isn't displayed in the office for the staff to splash coffee on, you will get penalised.
* National Credit Act - why it's now your responsibility as a supplier if any of your prospects becomes a client when s/he/it already owes more money than a hedge fund, and why you won't be able to get your money back.
* Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act - why I must add a disclaimer behind every statement I make that remotely smacks of financial advice. For example, I am not registered under this act as a financial intermediary and therefore I am not allowed to tell you that sinking your inheritance into pyramid schemes (which I am not qualified to tell you are illegal) might be risky, which I have not appropriately defined - even if I were to give you this advice after 7 hours of intense alcoholic and other stimulant intake at last night's braai.
* SARS - there is so much here, and so many Acts, that they get their own website. It's BIG. They're BIG. Don't mess with them. Get an accountant. (Which I am not allowed to advise you to do in terms of the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act. I am, however, allowed to demonstrate my intense concern by silently wetting myself at least once during the evening.)
* Electronic Communications and Transactions Act - which regulates what you can and can't do on the Internet, and defines the SA version of spam, which differs from the US version, as well as how long an Internet purchaser can take before keeping your goods and demanding their money back.
* Labour Relations Act - in which your staff get more rights than your wife and children so don't try to sleep with them, and follow the rulebook closely when employing them, firing them, or having dinner with them. (The staff, not your wife!) 157 pages of pitfalls, each of which will cost you serious money if you don't have a priest, which I believe I might be able to advise you to locate. (For your wife, not your staff!)
* Promotion of Access to Information Act - my very favourite waste of money. Fortunately you don't need to worry about this until 2011, unless you're a doctor (or something). I forget.
* Auditing Profession Act - the reason for (Pty) Ltd auditing costs spiralling into the stratosphere. Not only is your auditor consequentially paranoid (and rightly so) but s/he/it must report any of your aberrations to govrernment before reporting them to you.
* Small Business Tax Amnesty ... Act - in which the government will stop trying to put you in jail for missing the past few tax payments (and for which they had to temporarily suspend putting accountants into jail for helping you get this amnesty)
* CIPRO - where you have to submit your business details online each year, failing which your company will expire underneath you without warning
* Workmen's Compensation Commissioner - where you must register and pay the moment you have one employee - including yourself!
Did you like this article? Share it with your favourite social network.