Google’s Woza Online to shut down in SA

Google’s Woza Online, with thousands of websites belonging to small to medium businesses, will be shut down in SA. The search giant’s free website builder is shutting down on 28 February 2015 after it was launched in January 2012 in partnership with the Department of Trade & Industry (DTI), mobile network Vodacom and the Human Resources Development Council (HRDC).

Google described Woza Online as an ‘easy-to-build’ website system that offered free ‘wozaonline.co.za’ sub-domain names and a hosting service. Last year, Google said Woza Online was used by 40000 websites in South Africa. Nevertheless, Woza Online is being closed after Google also shut down similar website builder services in Nigeria and Kenya at the end of December. Woza Online users can log in to their accounts to retrieve photos and text until May 1 2015, Google said.

“Closing offerings always involve tough choices, but we do think very hard about each decision and its implications for our users, and we want to ensure that businesses in South Africa get the best of the web, which is why we’re introducing new options,” said Google in an emailed statement. Users can transfer their sites or use the search company’s ‘My Business’ offering, which helps customers find businesses via searches and illustrates where the businesses are located.

Alternatively, Google is going to launch the “My Business” service in South Africa, though, this is just a listing-type service and does not offer website building and hosting packages.

Scam artists abuse Woza Online

Complaints about fraudsters turning to Woza Online to create fake websites have dragged down the Google service. In 2013, MyBroadband reported that fraudsters are abusing the free platform to impersonate legitimate retailers, scam unsuspecting consumers, and harvest credit card details. E-commerce website Bidorbuy issued a warning to customers about Woza Online in 2013.

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Happy New Year 2015

PR!ME Solution wishes all clients and friends

a peaceful and tranquil festive season and

a very prosperous New Year 2015.

Load shedding hampers SMEs

Eskom’s forecast of planned load shedding in 2015 does not bode well for growth in the small and medium enterprise sector (SME).

While SME owners were cautiously optimistic that the current economic environment was conducive for business growth in 2015, factors such as the country’s constrained power supply were impacting confidence levels.

Business Partners Limited has released its third quarter 2014 SME Index (BPLSI) results. The BPLSI, which measures attitudes and confidence levels amongst SMEs in South Africa, revealed average confidence levels of 55% that the economy will be conducive for business growth in the next 12 months, which is a decrease of 3% when compared to the second quarter of 2014.

Load shedding impact on the SME sector

The introduction of national load shedding by Eskom from mid June 2014 has had a significant impact on the SME sector, resulting in decreased productivity and financial losses. The power crisis has been referred to as one of the most critical structural impediments to economic growth in the country, and continues to have far reaching effects on SMEs across all industries.

Additionally to the power crisis, the July cut to South Africa’s 2014 GDP growth forecast by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which was reduced from an initial 2.7% to 1.3%,  plus the two instances of raised interest rates by South African Reserve Bank, albeit marginal, have also taken its toll on SME owners’ confidence levels.

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This is the last blog for this year. We wish you an enjoyable festive season and and all the best in the New Year.

We are looking forward to welcoming you again in January 2015.

Tax changes to come: Are you aware of?

The following tax changes are about to be introduced in 2015. They are about to be send to the president for assent. You should be aware of it:

• Retirement reform

The delay of the retirement reform proposals has been well-documented and debated at length. What is less well-known is that while the press statement indicated that the reforms would be put off until March 1, 2017, the legislation has been drafted to suggest postponement to March 1, 2016.

A “positive change” that has not been postponed is the amendment to the definition of retirement date. If the rules of your retirement fund state that you retire at the age of 55, you also retire for tax purposes at this age in terms of the current legislation, even if you carry on working for the employer. This means that retirement funds are required to withhold tax from the pension lump sum at this age.

This will change in future. As long as the rules of the retirement fund allow you to retire at a later date than the minimum age stipulated, you would be able to continue to contribute to the fund and to preserve your retirement benefits by working past the normal retirement age. The lump sum would only be taxed when you elect to retire. But his would only be the case if the rules of the retirement fund allow for retirement at a later date.

This change comes into effect on March 1, 2015.

• Employer provided rental accommodation

Another proposed change is the calculation of the fringe benefit where an employer provides an employee with accommodation.  The fringe benefit amount is either the actual cost to the employer of providing the accommodation or a figure calculated in terms of a formula that is based on the employee’s remuneration – whichever is the higher amount.

The current difficulty, especially in circumstances where the accommodation is rented from a third party, is that the formula often provides a result that is more than the actual cost to the employer. In such circumstances the employer can apply for a directive from the South African Revenue Service (Sars) to have the formula amount lowered to a reasonable amount, but this has created an administrative bottleneck.

The amendment suggests that where the accommodation is rented from an independent third party, the fringe benefit will be calculated using the lower of the formula or the cost to the employer.

The change will be effective for years of assessment commencing on or after March 1, 2015.

• Company car fringe benefit

The present company car fringe benefit system is perceived to be unfair. Currently, the calculation of the fringe benefit is usually dependent on the cost of the vehicle to the employer or the market value of the vehicle when the employer first acquires the use of the vehicle. But car manufacturers or other employers in the motor trade often obtain the vehicle at a discounted price relative to what other employers would pay for the same vehicle and therefore base their calculation on a lower amount.

This could place employees who work outside the automotive industry at a disadvantage. That is going to change and the idea is that the retail market value will be used in all cases. In future, the retail market value would be published by way of Regulation. The idea is to use the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (list price) in the case of new vehicles and to look to the insurance industry where second hand vehicles are involved.

The change will apply to vehicles that are acquired or manufactured on or after March 1, 2015.

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