TOTT 5 April 2018

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8 Talk of the Town ADVERTISING / NEWSDESK: (046) 624 4356 Find us on Facebook April 5, 2018 Port Alfred BUSINESSFORUM Understanding your medical aid scheme annual fees tax credit UNLESS you are an accountant, it can be difficult to wrap your mind around tax – the calculation for your medical scheme tax rebate has many facets to it, so let’s look at the basic breakdown and see if we can unpack this benefit. First up, we have the Medical Scheme Fees Tax Credit or in short, M TC . MTC is a rebate which reduces the normal tax rate that an individual would pay, effectively it replaced part of the tax deduction that was allowed for medical scheme contributions with an aim to bring about some fairness and an equality in the treatment of medical expenses across all income groups. This is a fixed amount per person, which increases according to the number of dependants you have on your medical aid. For the period March 1 2017 to February 28 2018, the taxpayer who pays the medical scheme premium will be able to claim R303 for himself, R303 for the first dependant and R204 per dependant thereafter. So, for an average family of four, this would mean a tax credit of R1014 per month. Heading into the 2018-19 year of assessment, this will increase to R310 for the taxpayer, R310 for the first dependant and R209 per additional dependant thereafter – our family of four for the period of March 1 2018 – February 28 2019 will receive a R1038 per month tax credit. MTC impacts employers and employees, as the credit must be considered by the employer when calculating the amount of tax to be deducted from the employees’ remuneration. Individuals can claim the MTC when they submit their annual income tax return. The next part of the calculation is to claim for medical expenses – this is known as the Additional Medical Expenses Tax credit or AMTC. AMTC is a rebate given in addition to MTC. Simply, this deals with the amounts paid for medical expenses for you and your H E A LT H AND WEALTH MINUTE ... with Taryn Gutsche dependants ‘out of p o c ke t ’ and not recovered from your medical scheme. The calculation is a little tricky and does depend on a person’s age and whether they, or any of their dependants have a disability. There are really two categories here; A person who is 65 years of age or older, along with a person who is, or has a spouse or child dependant with a disability, would be able to claim: ●33.3% of the fees paid (as exceeds three times the amount of MTC to which the person is entitled); ●Plus 33.3% of the qualifying medical expenses which were paid out of pocket. For everyone else, we add the following together; ●All contributions paid to the registered medical scheme for the individual and dependants as exceeds four times the amount of MTC the person is entitled to; ●Plus, the actual qualifying medical expenses paid and not recovered. Once this is done, we calculate the amount above 7.5% of the taxable income – 25% of this sum is then claimable. As always, there are protocols involved, if you are uncertain of what your benefits currently are or would like assistance in understanding how this impacts you directly then please get in touch: taryn@edgefinance.co.za Catch up with what’s happening on the PA business front Now is the time to invest AS COMMONLY known, most, or all investment funds go through cycles of gains or losses. These are normally caused by external factors that are beyond our cont rol. Thus timing your investments can be exceptionally important and will mostly be rather difficult for any novice to know the difference. An elderly Jewish gentleman once told me in very simple language, that the “t rick” of investing is to “buy low and sell high”. Easier said than done, but I can assure you that it takes many years of intense investment studies to know the difference. Lately, we were hit by numerous political and other causes that caused untold damage to our investment markets. Ridiculous political decisions, for one, can have extremely negative effects to investments. We have seen and experienced various negative effects, due mainly to irresponsible political statements. We saw the downgrading THIS has been one of our busiest Easter w e e ke n d s . Our four generations of family have been with us for three weeks. On top of this, we had to juggle the expectations of paying guests with the demands of family, especially grandchildren! As it happened our guests enjoyed the participation in family activities and we had MONEY M AT T E R S by numerous agencies like Standards & Poor, Moody’s and others. This off course had an extremely negative effect on the entire e c o n o m y. The effect following these downgrades certainly had been devastating for investors. Many investors feared that the bottom is going to fall out of all investment m a r ke t s . Yes, we certainly saw numerous investment markets taking a “tumble”. This actually is why one should put one’s trust in a qualified, experienced and well known investment a d v i s o r. They say there is a time to be careful and a time to be bold and only a well experienced investment advisor can fully understand the difference. Please take note that now is certainly not the time to climb out of a MYHOME ... with Simon Oliver a wonderful time with our family especially – the grandchildren. They live in the Netherlands so we usually only “see” them on Skype. I’m very sad to see the family leave but at the same time we are happy to get our home back into shape and collect the toys that had been left all over the place creating all sorts of obstacles for us, and returned them to friends who had lent them to us. The boys enjoyed the toys and all the sounds they made … but Phoebe (our hyper sensitive border collie) would ... with Nico Human carefully planned investment market and thereby realise your losses. Rather remain in an investment and wait for the markets to improve. A loss is only suffered on the day that you have actually sold/realised your i n ve st m e n t . If one makes a study of the “wave movements” seen in a graph of your investment funds, it certainly will show rather clearly that there is no fund that never takes a dip or two. Thus there are continually ups and downs experienced in all investment funds. The severity of the ups and downs certainly would differ to suit one’s actual investment risk profile. Thus the vital importance of the establishing of one’s risk profile before investments are made. After certain political disappear for long periods to chill! We shared lots of meals together. We discussed all sorts of topics and we created lots of memories. Memories that make coming home a pleasure; memories that entice guests to return and continue our journey together; memories that make a home a home. We enjoy this process but it do feel good when we get our home back to enjoy as we want to enjoy it, without first having to changes had been made since December last year, the actual reactions of rating agencies has improved dramatically and is certain to improve further as the stability of our internal affairs increases. I do not maintain that there will not be any further “hiccups” in our economy, but I am certainly experiencing vast i m p r ove m e n t s . I cannot stress the importance enough that now is the right time to invest to ensure the upswing in our economy works in our favour. Remember the saying, “Buy Low, Sell High” and now is certainly the time to buy/invest. For expert investment advice please feel free to phone my office on local number (087) 805-7712 for a confidential appointment that is certain to bring the desired results to your i n ve st m e n t s . We are situated at 20 Southwell Road, Port Alfred and offer ample free, off street parking as well as a ramp for easy wheelchair access. Memories make home a home consider the needs of ot h e r s . Judy and I sat and watched the sun come up over the garden drinking a cup of coffee and enjoying sounds of the birds waking up. I hope you all had a wonderful Easter. Please write and tell me what made it special for you. My contact details are s i m o n . o l i v e r @ s e e f f. c o m and 082-653-5643. I look forward to hearing from you. ROYAL ALFRED MARINA | R 299 000 Own your share of this premium property Bedrooms 4 | Bathrooms 3 | Garages 2 | Parkings 2 ůĞĂĞĞĂĚĐĂĞĨůůŚŝŝĂĐĂŚŽŶůŽīĞĨŽĞĞŬ ŽĨŚĞĞĂůŝŝŶŽŚĞĞĞĞŬĂŶĚŽĞĞŬ split up. There are ten members in the syndicate. All rules ĂŶĚĞŐůĂŽŶĂĞĂĂŝůĂďůĞĨŽĂůŝĮĞĚďĞ WEB REF 458679 Antony de Bruin | 079 941 6951 | 046 624 4879 antony.debruin@seeff.com ŝĞďĂŽŝŶŵĞŶ ROYAL ALFRED MARINA | R 3 300 000 ĞůůĚĞŝŐŶĞĚŽŵĞĂĂŶĂīŽĚĂďůĞŝĐĞ Bedrooms 6 | Bathrooms 3 | Garages 2 | Parkings 4 ŚŝŚŽŵĞŽīĞĂůĂŽŽŵĨŽŚĞĐŚŝůĚĞŶĂůĐŽŶŝĞĨŽŵ three bedrooms upstairs. Open plan entertainment area has ŝĂůůĨŽŵŚĞďĂŽŐĞďĂŚŽŽŵŇŽŝŶŐŽŶŽŚĞůĂŐĞ ĚŽďůĞũĞŶŝĞŝŶĐůĚĞĚ WEB REF 407206 Diane Hosty | 082 775 2777 | 046 624 4879 diane.hosty@seeff.com ŝĞďĂŽŝŶŵĞŶ
April 5, 2018 ADVERTISING / NEWSDESK: (046) 624 4356 Find us on Facebook Talk of the Town 9 Easter bunny comes early to Happy Hours LOUISE KNOWLES THE last day of the school term was a treat for the children of Happy Hours Pre-primary who staged an Easter egg hunt after their school concert last We d n e s d ay. The older children sang for their parents and were very sweet, happy and well-mannered, while the younger ones needed to eat. Principal Tracy Lloyd explained the “I Spy” E a st e r egg hunt to everybody. “They get a piece of paper and a pencil and they have to look for all the pictures, like Easter eggs, a baskets of eggs, an Easter bunny or a bunch of carrots and they can get help from their parents.” The children enjoyed themselves with their parents before ending school for the first day of the Easter h o l i d ay s . All nine provinces will be on holiday until the second term begins next Tu e s d ay. HUNTING FOR EASTER EGGS: Tyler Terblanche, from left, Gillian Terblanche and Luka Taskov keep their focus to find Easter eggs and other goodies on the ‘I Spy’ Easter egg hunt I SPY: Vincent Plaatjes gave his son Noah some help in finding Easter eggs and other goodies that were hidden on the trail at the Easter egg hunt at Happy Hours last Wednesday Pictures: LOUISE KNOWLES EASTER BUNNIES: Lilitha Viti, left, and Awo Mkrazuli helped each other find Easter eggs and other goodies at the ‘I Spy’ Easter egg hunt at Happy Hours last Wednesday EASTER BONNET: Lilonke Vuso wearing the hat he made last Wednesday at the Easter egg hunt ,
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