The impact of COVID-19 on the world economy has been enormous. The “knock-down” effect of the lockdown in South Africa has been pervasive. For every business affected, there are people who have lost jobs or at best have had significantly reduced income. Reduced income reduces spending power. Reduced spending power reduces income (and therefore profits) to the companies that those individuals would ordinarily have bought from. Those companies in turn can no longer afford to pay their staff and so the cycle continues.

"Spoliation is the wrongful deprivation of another's right of possession. The aim of spoliation is to prevent self-help. It seeks to prevent people from taking the law into their own hands ... The cause for possession is irrelevant - that is why a thief is protected ... The fact that possession is wrongful or illegal is irrelevant, as that would go to the merits of the dispute" (extracts from a 2012 Supreme Court of Appeal decision)

There have been 2 new developments at the South African Revenue Service (SARS) this month which will affect most companies.