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Filter: Compliance
The costly consequences of backdated share transactions

24 November 2025

Backdated shares can lead to money-laundering risks and put your business in legal trouble.

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Article
Cybercrime - a clear and present danger for individuals and businesses

23 October 2023,  Dr Damian Viviers

Cybercrime has become a global pandemic with South Africa leading the charge in terms of countries that have become a... hotspot for cybercrime, earning us the dubious honour of being labelled the cybercrime capital of Africa. With October being international cyber security awareness month, we touch on some of the issues and risks which South African businesses face with respect to cybercrime.

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Article
Important notice for trustees: Enhanced requirements for filing tax returns with SARS

03 July 2023,  Elani Volschenk

With the General Laws (Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Terrorism Financing) Amendment Act 22 of 2022 (“Amendment Act”) having come into... full effect on 1 April 2023, SARS has updated its Income Tax Return Wizard system to enable SARS to intensely verify the information submitted during tax return season.

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Article
The ‘what’ and ‘when’ of the new beneficial ownership reporting for companies

10 May 2023,  Dr Candice ReyndersLuhann Prinsloo

Surprisingly, many companies remain blissfully unaware of the new company reporting requirements introduced by the General Laws (Anti-Money Laundering and... Combatting Terrorism Financing) Amendment Act 22 of 2022 (“Amendment Act”). The Amendment Act introduces changes to the company environment (effective 1 April 2023) which will have an administrative impact on South African companies. In this article we delve into the ‘what’ and ‘when’ of these new reporting requirements.

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Why trustees must now also record the accountable institutions they engage with

04 May 2023,  Dr Candice ReyndersElani Volschenk

With the passing of the General Laws (Anti-Money Laundering and Combatting Terrorism Financing) Amendment Act 22 of 2022 (“Amendment Act”)... late in December 2022, a number of critical amendments were introduced to the Trust Property Control Act 57 of 1988 (“Trust Act”), including amongst others the responsibility by trustees to record details about the Accountable Institutions they engage with in their capacity as trustee. In this article, we look a little deeper at this requirement and what it will mean in practice for trustees.

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Article
Trustees take note! How to record your beneficial ownership structure

18 April 2023,  André van NiekerkJohnny Davis

In a previous article we unpacked the introduction and meaning of the new ‘beneficial owner’ definition introduced into the law... of trusts by the General Laws (Anti-Money Laundering and Combatting Terrorism Financing) Amendment Act 22 of 2022 (“Amendment Act”). With these changes being effective as of 1 April 2023, trustees should be awake to the proposed process for recording and submitting your trust’s beneficial ownership information to the Master of the High Court. 

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Article
New Beneficial Ownership rules for companies and trusts

14 April 2023,  Luhann Prinsloo

With the new General Laws (Anti-money Laundering and Combatting of Terrorism Financing) Amendment Act 22 of 2022 (“Amendment Act”) having... come into operation on 1 April 2023, a new definition of ‘beneficial ownership’ has been formally introduced in a number of key laws affecting all trusts and companies. In this article we delve a bit deeper into this new concept.

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Trustees MUST now report their status! Find out why

30 March 2023,  André van NiekerkJohnny DavisMark le Riche

With major amendments to South Africa’s anti-money laundering framework scheduled to take effect from 1 April 2023 as part of... Government’s strategy to remedy South Africa’s grey listing status, all trustees should take careful note of the new disclosure requirements that will apply to them.

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Article
New disclosure requirements for companies. Comply or risk being deregistered!

22 March 2023,  Dr Candice ReyndersLuhann Prinsloo

In this article we take a look at amendments to the Companies Act 71 of 2008 which introduces new disclosure... requirements. These amendments have been introduced by the recently passed General Laws (Anti-Money Laundering and Combatting of Terrorism Financing) Amendment Act 22 of 2022 (“Amendment Act”) with the new disclosure requirements applying as of 1 April 2023. 

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Article
Companies take note of new beneficial ownership reporting requirements

06 March 2023,  Dr Candice ReyndersLuhann Prinsloo

The General Laws (Anti-Money Laundering and Combatting of Terrorism Financing) Amendment Act 22 of 2022 (“Amendment Act”) was signed into... law late in December 2022 and contains a number of critical measures South Africa hopes to put to use in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing. In this article we take a look specifically at amendments to the Companies Act 71 of 2008 and the new reporting requirements applicable to companies.

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Article
Alert: South Africa’s grey listing means extensive new compliance requirements!

28 February 2023,  Dr Damian Viviers

The announcement on Friday that South Africa has been grey listed has come as a shock to many South Africans... blissfully unaware of this sword hanging over our heads. For those in the know, grey listing has been unavoidable given the damning reports levelled against weaknesses in our money laundering and financial control framework. But besides hurting our economy the grey listing has also forced government to introduce stricter control measures to correct the shortcomings and hopefully have the grey listing removed over time. And these control measures will affect all businesses and individuals in some way or another.

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Trustees beware! You can now be fined and jailed!

27 February 2023,  André van NiekerkJohnny DavisMark le Riche

Trusts have for some time now been the target of criticism for their alleged use and abuse in the money... laundering environment. The latest challenge to the trust comes in the form of a major amendment to South Africa’s anti-money laundering framework by the General Laws (Anti-Money Laundering and Combatting Terrorism Financing) Amendment Act 22 of 2022 (“Amendment Act”) which holds serious implications for trusts and trustees. In this article we will focus specifically on how the trust form is abused and how the Amendment Act aims to curb such abuse.

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