standard bank

[murdock]

in this country...you just take whats shoved at you...cr*p service...high rates...service fees...a petrol price which is below the 100 yet we still paying a price at the old 150 mark...just spend your day complaining because nothings gona change...if anything its only gona get worse.

watching the news this morning the youth league fool is just making me worried with his terrorist type talk "we will take what ever we want and if anyone gets in our way" and as for zuma well if he doesnt go to court he will prove that he is no longer inocent until proven guilty...hes just guilty...clearly the anc are loosing focus on their core objective...thats why they are having internal battles.

[murdock]

i have just heard zuma will not go to trial... looks like the NPA has just been wasting our tax money again...or is there more to this story that we are not being told.

[Morticia]

Yip, he's 'free man walking'. Proof yet again that nowadays in SA you can get away with all and any crimes, including murder, but heavens forbid you do not pay your TV licence!!

[wynn]

Yes,
I was thinking if you had a legal overseas account, (which I have heard are cheaper by a long way than locally) and to which you sent your cash 'legally' assuming you earned the cash here.
Then if you used their credit card to transact here.
Would the foreign exchange duties outweigh the savings on local bank charges?

By legally I assume it is legal to incorporate a trust in certain foreign countries.
This trust can own the bank account.
You 'work for' that trust remitting all the earnings to 'Head Office'
They in turn pay you 100% commission, less the expenses they incur, which you can spend here using the credit card they provide you with.

[Dave A]

Trying hard to get this back on topic, Wynn?

I don't see a problem spending the money with an offshore credit card. The PITA might be getting payments into it for most businesses. And not all suppliers take credit cards.

[daveob]

An offshore trust works really well if you sell your services online and accept credit card payments in $ or £.

Your trust can then 'lend' you lump sums which you will owe back to the trust, or you use the debit cards from your offshore account to buy good on behalf of the trust - you're just using them and they still belong to the trust.

Account costs are around £7.50 per month ( in total ) to hold accounts in £, $ and Euro.

pm me if you want the contact details for a Trust expert - be prepared to pay for his consultation and services, but if you have online businesses, it's probably going to be minimal compared to your savings and reduced tax exposure.

[Dave A]

be prepared to pay for his consultation and services,

Have you got any kind of ballpark figure?

[Morticia]

Eish! Sounds like a LOT of trouble and extra costs (tax/forex/etc) to merely save a couple of rands in bank charges?

[Pap_sak]

Anybody thought of switching to Capitec? I am tempted - thier rates are much lower and they give you 11% on cleared balances. They do not have a cheque account though, but do have internet banking. Not sure if they business banking though..

[daveob]

Have you got any kind of ballpark figure?

Yep. Ballpark ( each clients needs are unique ) is about 16k.

First consultation is about R1400, which is deducted from the total cost if you go ahead with the trust.

Includes trust documents, offshore trustees first annual fee, opening bank accounts ( Stirling, Dollar and Euro ), internet and phone banking, debit cards, etc, etc

Typically, 'one' would be using online card transactions paid out direct to one's $ account and with an almost zero cost of sales, saving 30 - 40% of the transaction value that one doesn't have to pay to SARS as tax. That 30 - 40% saving has already paid the costs of the Trust setup in less than 1 month.

Another pro / con is that your overseas balance does ( in ZAR terms ) get better if the ZAR/US$ rate changes - you've already got your $ at a lower rate.

You have to decide if your business is suitable for this and probably the major factors would be :
1. the size of your 'cost of sales' and how much you need to pay to local suppliers
2. the number of transactions you do online ( can you ask clients to pay online with credit cards in $ instead of EFTs in ZAR )