Weekly News - 6 October 2008

GARDEN ROUTE BEAUTIES

Miss Garden Route & Klein Karoo 2008 and the Face of Tourism in the Southern Cape was crowned at a gala evening at the Garden Route Casino on Saturday evening. The beautiful Noluthando Mkhoben (20) from George is the winner. Her first princess is 21-year-old Nicole Scholtz, also from George and the second princess is Isobel Imbraifo (24) from Great Brak River. Isobel was also awarded the titles of Miss Personality as well as Miss Photogenic. Noluthando is a second year Local Government Financial student at the Walter Sesulu University in East London. This was the second time that she had entered the Miss Garden Route competition. In 2006 she was runner up when Denise Schoeman from Knysna wore the crown. According to Noluthando she had once again entered the competition because of the opportunities it posed, as well as the outstanding prizes associated with this competition. This was the first big competition that she has won. Photo: Martie de Jager.


FANTASY BALL BRINGS JOBS TO UNEMPLOYED
30 PEOPLE HAVE JOBS FOR MANY MONTHS - MAKING DECOR FOR SOUTH AFRICA'S PREMIER SOCIETY EVENT

A fantasy world is created for this year's Fancourt Spring Ball, with breathtaking decor and intoxicating music from local artists.

To make this fantasy world come true, a team of talented people are hard at work at the George Child and Family Wel­fare's craft workshop where they are gluing together chan­deliers and complicated-look­ing wire orbs that will hang from the ceiling and contribute to the atmosphere.


BOTANICAL GARDENS A JEWEL

The Garden Route Botanical Gardens must be cherished as a much-loved asset of George, which has wonderful po­tential to become a magnet for tourists and enhance the lives of Georgians.
It is the earnest de­sire of the management to fence it to protect it from van­dalism. In future City Council will make its contribution towards the end. So said Mayor of George, Flip de Swardt during the recent tree-planting day at the gardens.

This year City Council donated and planted 130 trees to help create a wood-biome. All in all 17 000 trees have been planted since 2002 and the em­phasis has moved to indigenous.

According to the mayor they are deeply concerned about the loss of trees through all sorts of develop­ments. "We are doing everything in our power to restore the character of the Garden Route. All initiatives will be continued to rebuild the green charac­ter," he said.

For Arbor Day 5000 fruit trees sponsored by DWAF are being handed out to res­idents who live in barren suburbs.
The Garden Route Botanical Garden management have been lobbying Council for funds for erecting pali­sade fencing around the gardens for more than a year.
Security and van­dalism remains a se­rious problem and due to the enormous costs involved, it is difficult to fund such a capital ex­penditure on muni­cipal land, which is utilised by all sec­tors of the commu­nity.

Over the past 13 years, the gardens were laid out and almost entirely funded by a volun­teer organisation, the Garden Route Botanical Trust.

Helping Green Hand … The Garden Route Botanical Gardens lovely in spring and even more so with the extra 130 trees planted by Mayor Flip De Swardt, DA councillors and head of departments as well as the green Lady, Susan Deacon and her Family. Rolling up their sleeves they all did their bit.

GOVERNMENT’S PROPOSED RETIREMENT REFORM

The George Business Chamber is holding a presentation on 20 October where David O'Brien, general manager: Retirement and Old Age Reform (Old Mutual) will address business people on the feasibility of Gov­ernment's retirement (social) reform pro­posal.

O'Brien will address the following ques­tions: Why is Government introducing a state pension fund? What do you as the human resource director / small business owner need to know about the proposed retirement reforms? How will the introduction of a state pension scheme impact employers? How will it impact employ­ees?

Bring your business cards for a lucky draw

The presentation will start at 07:30 for 08:00 at Pine Lodge, Knysna Road.

The cost R130 for members and R190 for non-members and includes a buffet break­fast.

To book, phone Colleen or Lydia at 044 874 3349.

NATURE LOVERS DISCOVER RED HILLS

Discover the glorious landscapes and wealth of fascinating natural history of the central Little Karoo during a three-day programme, from Thursday 16 October to Sunday 19 October.

Learn about a broad range of local natural history, with a special focus on geology, fossils, landscapes and vegetation - based at the lovely Red Stone Hills Guest Farm near Calitzdorp.

Tuition is through slide lectures, al fresco talks in the field, scenic drives along quiet back roads, as well as several walks in Karoo veld and mountain kloofs.

The programme is led by Dr John Almond who has done considerable research and field guiding experience. For more in­formation contact Petro Potgieter at 044­213 3783; e-mail redstonr@pixie.co.za).

Please note that all participants must be sufficiently fit to walk comfortably in rocky veld for a couple of hours if they wish to complete the full programme.


MAKING A HOME LOAN TAX DE-DUCTABLE

Interest on a bond is tax-deductible, provided you stick to certain rules.
A general principle of tax law is that the onus of proof is on the taxpayer to prove deductions to which he/she is entitled. This implies that the burden of proving that an amount of interest is tax deductible rests on you, the taxpayer. Furthermore you would have to justify the calculation of the amount claimed.
In the course of my tax practice I have had several occasions when it has not been easy for taxpayers to establish the amount of interest that is tax deductible.
Take a relatively simple situation. Say that you own a house that you bought for R2m and 20% of the house is used as a home office. The current bond balance is R1,5m - it is an "access bond". Interest on the bond at a rate of 14% is currently R210 000 per annum. You would be entitled to claim 20% of R210 000, or R42 000, as a tax deduction in the production of your rental income. If you draw R100 000 on the bond to finance personal expenses, the bond balance will increase to R1,6m, with the interest thereon appearing on your monthly bond statement.
However the interest on the additional R100 000 is not tax-deductible as it is not in the production of income. This portion of the interest therefore has to be excluded from the calculation of tax deductible interest for all years going forward. Therefore only 15/16 of the 20% of the interest that is reflected on the bond statement will be tax deductible from that point onwards. This percentage will obviously change if further withdrawals are made for non-income producing purposes.A question that sometimes arises is whether the taxpayer can choose how to allocate an extraordinary receipt into the bond account. In the above example, say an inheritance of R400 000 is received. Can you allocate all of this to the 80% private portion of the bond (and none to the "home office" portion), thereby leaving you with a larger income tax deduction going forward, or must it be pro-rated to both the private and ‘home office' portions of the bond balance?The fact is that you only have one borrowing - the bond, which is an undivided borrowing over the whole house. Therefore, once the inheritance is applied to the bond, it must reduce the borrowing over the whole house (pro-rata). You cannot choose to apply the inheritance to only a portion of the borrowing.Therefore, from the point of view of tax-planning, it would be better to apply the inheritance to any other non tax-deductible borrowing that you may have before paying it into the bond. Assuming that you are on the maximum marginal tax rate of 40% and that you are paying interest on your bond at the rate of 14 % per annum, then the effective after tax return on money paid into the bond in the above example is 12,88 % - it is the full 14% on 80% of the bond plus (14 % * 0.6) on the remaining 20% of the bond, giving a result of 12,88%. If you have investments expected to yield an after-tax return of more than 12,88 % it would make sense to pay the inheritance into these investments rather than into the bond. If not, then paying it into the bond is the best solution.

INFLATION TO DECLINE

Inflation is expected to decline in the next few months, due to base effects, falling fuel prices and the introduction of the new inflation methodology, Nedbank Group's economic unit said on Tuesday.
Earlier, Statistics SA said that CPIX rose to a record 13.6 percent in August from 13 percent in July year-on-year, once again exceeding the Reserve Bank's target of three to six percent.
However, inflation was likely to prove to be "much stickier" during the course of next year, Nedbank said.
Rental costs, which would make up around 16 percent of the new CPI index, were likely to rise further in 2009, as prohibitively expensive mortgages and tighter credit conditions increased demand for rental accommodation.
Independent analysts put rental inflation during 2008 at between 10 and 12 percent.

The rand, which was expected to depreciate further on heightened global risk aversion and political uncertainty, would also add to the cost of imported goods, Nedbank said.
Despite August's bad inflation number, the case for monetary easing was becoming more compelling, it added, as inflation was set to ease over the coming months and economic conditions would become much tougher.
"However, the monetary policy committee will remain reluctant to cut rates until inflation is firmly down from its peak and food and fuel prices are trending lower," Nedbank said.
It therefore expected that the first rate cut would come in April.
"With little chance that the domestic demand is going to rebound quickly in 2009 and inflation back in single digits, the Reserve Bank is likely to cut aggressively thereafter."