As small business owners, oftentimes it is a mountain to climb when it comes to organizing your daily business transactions. Not to mention being unable to create and implement the right systems in order to ensure that this is being done without your daily presence or even more so, without you having to always be on the backs of your employees to ensure that these stuffs are being done. As such, this has opened many businesses to unconsciously ignore other important aspects that often add to its mountain of liabilities. These most times fall within the compliance zone. Thus, here are the TOP Three (3) that we have seen over the past years:
1. Ignoring Tax Obligations
This is probably the most common of them all. Small businesses are still making the mistake of not filing their taxes until after they are given a demand notice by the Tax Administration of Jamaica or need a TCC to conduct other business transactions like clearing goods from the wharf, trying to open a business account or trying to access a business loan. This is always the route to disaster as the penalties applied will always just add to more monies to be paid. Hence, this is why we encourage all businesses and taxpayers to ensure that even if you don’t have the money all at once to pay your taxes, please ensure that at least the filing is being done. Whether it’s your SO4 or ITO2, SO1 or GCT, staying up to date will always leave you with a better chance of staying in good terms with the Tax Administration of Jamaica. As such, please stay current and up to date with meeting and knowing Tax deadlines by visiting the Tax Administration website or just simply by following out IG page @bizcareconsultacct.
2. NOT Paying Outstanding Taxes
Although we made mentioned above of the importance of ‘at least filing’ even if the funds are unavailable to pay outstanding taxes, let’s not forget to put a marginal and alerted timeline for payment to be done. Too often, we see entrepreneurs or small business owners leave Tax payments for last until they ultimately forget and then become bombarded with these increasingly high amounts overtime. This is commonly seen with the tax types or filing obligations of Income tax and SO1 deductions. Please again, ensure that you implement some type of payment alert and system to put aside monies monthly to pay these obligations. It should also be noted that once these filings are done, you may apply for a payment plan to clear the balances over a period of time.
3. Not Renewing Business Certificates and Meeting Company Filing obligations at COJ
Many businesses sometimes rush into registration because of contractual agreements or even more importantly to properly monetized their revenue to meet compliance requirements at the bank. As such, there are often times of negligent in regards to the yearly requirement to file at the Companies Office of Jamaica as a company Limited, this is done yearly on their anniversary registration date as shown on the business certificate or for a Sole Trader/Partnership entity to renew their business certificate every three (3) years after registering at the same anniversary registration date as shown on their business certificate. As such, businesses who fail to meet these requirements overtime are attached with penalties based on how long they are outstanding for. Hence, if you are knowledgeable of the fact that you may be outdated or non-compliant within this aspect, please contact the Companies Office of Jamaica to have the matter resolved.
It is important to note that there are other essential requirements that must be met within the business field when operating your small business. One of which is to ensure that your revenues or sales are being deposited frequently enough through a business account, and also that you are sub-dividing your personal and business transactions accordingly. These aspects become pivotal in being qualified for a business loan if/when needed. As such, please ensure to stay up to date within these categories and meeting these requirements.
If you need help or further information, please feel free to contact us at 1 (876) 902-7259 | 545-6928 or email us at BIZcareConsultationAcct@Gmail.com to arrange your consultation session. Do remember at BIZcare “Your Business is our Priority”. We offer the services of:
- Business Registration
- Tax Filing
- GCT Filing
- Payroll Services
- Consultation Services
- TCC Services
And Others.
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Written by: Kmar Henry [ CEO |BIZcare Consultation & Accounting Firm Limited ]
Edited by: Sheryl Bailey [ Director | BIZcare Consultation & Accounting Firm Limited ]
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