It is a brand-new year and business activities are gradually picking up. There are a number of statutory levies, charges and filings that are due at the beginning of the year depending on which sector a Business operates in. Some of the charges include Land use charges, Environmental development charges as well as practising fees payable to professional organisations which relevant staff of a business organisation belong to.
The demand notices for these statutory levies and charges are going to start pouring in soon. It is worthy to note that some of these levies and charges have cut-off dates for payment. However, there is a tendency for some of the demand notices to be pushed to the back and marked as KIV (Keep in view). At the end of the day, the cut -off dates for the payments and filings may be missed if there is no deliberate effort to monitor them. The implication of making some of these payments late is that a business organisation may incur monetary penalties for not doing the needful at the right time. The best time to deal with demand notices is as soon as they are received.
On the alternative, if there are no funds readily available to settle them, keep a close watch on it to ensure that the cut-off date for payment isn’t exceeded. There are also times when an unfamiliar demand notice makes its way to your Business organisation. This does not mean that it should be ignored simply because it isn’t one of the demand notices usually received by the Business organisation. Necessary enquiries should be made to confirm the legitimacy of such charges and the needful should be done based on the outcome of such enquiries.
There are also some statutory filings that are due to be made with regulatory bodies at the beginning of the year or by the end of the first quarter of the year. It is also very important to start collating the required information for the filings from the relevant stakeholders and not wait till the last minute before collating the required information and making the necessary filing. More often than not, when information for these filings is hurriedly collated, the outcome is a report fraught with mistakes and misrepresentation of the true position. The cut-off date could be missed in a bid to correct the mistakes. It is worthy to mention that late filings or incorrect filings that do not represent the correct position could all lead to heavy monetary sanctions from a regulatory body.
It is very important for every business organisation to start early in the year and be deliberate about its compliance policies. Necessary structures should be put in place to close all compliance gaps. There should be a dedicated member of staff ensuring and monitoring compliance with regulatory obligations within laid down timelines.
This year every business organisation should be intentional about compliance. Concerted efforts should be made to ensure that a chunk of its earnings is not spent on incurring penalties due to failure to comply and meet up with its statutory/ regulatory obligations.
Ekwegh is a private legal practitioner with over 15 yearslegal experience in law firms and as in-house counsel.She is also a fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants.
Email: [email protected]
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