Emma Forbes (UK)

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Annual returns – this may sound more like a tax requirement but is in fact a Companies Act 2008 requirement that every company must adhere to.

The annual return is the submission of the amount of a company’s turnover for the previous year. Each year, companies are required to file this information with the Companies…

Email correspondence has by and large superseded physical correspondence and email signatures have effectively replaced company letterheads as the first impression a third party has of a company’s corporate branding identity. However, a company will usually have a letterhead for use for company correspondence.

As part of setting up, a company should create a letterhead…

  1. A trust is an arrangement that allows someone to hold assets (without owning them) for the benefit of the trust beneficiaries. The key element of the trust arrangement is the transfer of ownership and control of the trust assets from the donor or founder to one or more trustees who hold the trust assets not

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A number of jurisdictions have local stakeholder requirements for private companies. South Africa has a hybrid system where there are local requirements (so that some positions can only be held by South African citizens or residents).

Directors

A South African private company must have at least one director but there is no requirement that this…

  1. A non-profit company is a company incorporated for one or more objects, either a public benefit or an object relating to cultural or social activities, or communal or group interests.
  2. The name of the non-profit company must end with the expression “NPC” (eg Good Deeds NPC).
  3. A non-profit company may be incorporated with or without

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Bartering, the ancient and original form of trading used before the introduction of legal tender, allows parties to dispense with cash but still be able to acquire the goods and services they require. Tough economic times across the globe have seen an increase in trading by bartering. Bartering is making a comeback!

Bartering consists of…

  1. In South Africa a company is recognised as a legal entity separately from its shareholders. Any claims arising from the company’s activities would be brought against the company itself and not against its holding company or shareholders. The statutory liability of a shareholder in a private company is limited to its respective capital contributions to

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The Companies Act 2008 introduced the key concept that a provision in a shareholders agreement that is inconsistent with the Companies Act and the company’s memorandum of incorporation (MOI) is void to the extent of the inconsistency. This was an about turn from the position under the previous Companies Act and the previous practice of…

  1. Foreign companies with business or non-profit activities in South Africa may be required to register with the Companies and Intellectual Properties Commission (CIPC) as an external company. Section 23 of the Companies Act 2008 provides that a foreign company must register within 20 business days of first beginning to “conduct business” in South Africa.
  2. A

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