Taxpayer’s (legitimate) refund stuck in limbo after profile hacked

A cyberattack not only removed his account from his tax practitioner’s profile but also led to an erroneous VAT refund being paid back to SARS.

Sharemax Investigation Reopened?

Sharemax and the media never had a cosy relationship. In the early days, Deon Basson published a number of articles in which he asked searching questions which eventually led to legal action by […]

FIC Update

Registration Guidelines on Youtube The Financial Intelligence Centre created a Youtube channel containing videos on registering on the goAML system. They currently detail: The documents required Process for Entities already registered with the […]

Gap Cover Commission Calculation

A number of Moonstone Compliance clients queried the interpretation of the commission payable in respect of GAP cover products. The following bands were provided: Individual and group policy Monthly premium band Maximum Commission […]

RA costs and client interests

by Patrick Cairns Last year ASISA took a big step with the introduction of the Estimated Annual Cost (EAC) standard. Its implementation in the RA space has been particularly significant, as there have […]

Prof Matthew Lester’s tequila-tax-slam-dunk

Can we use the changes in income tax to score big on our tax returns? 22 February 2017 is South Africa’s national budget day and there is a lot of doom and gloom […]

Budget Warmup Cocktail

It’s that time of year when everyone is speculating on what will happen on the National 2017/18 National Budget Speech. I do hope those who predict a VAT increase are as bonkers as […]

Insurance Bill criticised by black business

Business Day reports as follows: A highly technical bill intended to strengthen the prudential regulation of the insurance industry was attacked by black business in Parliament on Tuesday for reinforcing the barriers to […]

Santam makes TCF decision

An Operational Circular titled “Settlement of claims on damaged or stolen vehicle tyres and shock absorbers/springs”, issued on 24 January 2017, provides a good example of Treating Customers Fairly in action. Commercial and Personal lines […]

Regulatory Exam Bodies may not endorse Training Services

Regulatory Examination bodies such as Moonstone operate in terms of a mandate from the FSB. In a sense, we represent the Regulator, which means that we are bound by exactly the rules and […]

Risk Involved in Short-term Home Rentals

The latest Mutual and Federal newsletter contains an article by SA Property News of interest to brokers and their clients who make use of facilities like AirB&B to rent out their houses and […]

Raging Bull Awards

Congratulations to all recipients of these prestigious awards from all of us at Moonstone. It is pleasing to note that the majority of these winners use our platforms to share information with the […]

Adviser and Advice Differentiation

The December 2016 Retail Distribution Review update provides clarity on matters which appeared slightly confusing in earlier proposals. The Regulator did away with the “multi-tied” category of adviser – in future, you are […]

New advertising standards

Chapter 4 of the proposed new Policyholder Protection rules contains details regarding advertising standards. Some of the more interesting ones, which relate to enquiries we often receive from readers, are included below. Unwanted […]

Slim vang sy baas

This Afrikaans saying is very apt with regards to a recent Ombud determination in which, for once, the adviser was not held liable for a client’s loss. During January 2012, two complaints were […]

Remuneration for Investment Product Advice

This is possibly the biggest bone of contention for advisers in the investment space. In the FSB’s RDR Update published in December 2016, the following information was conveyed: Commission on investment products As indicated […]