Duties and Responsibilities of Directors
Whether you are a newly appointed director, or are thinking about becoming a director, you will need to be aware that directors have many obligations and legal responsibilities:
- You are legally responsible to file the company’s annual accounts and annual return on time,
- You must ensure your company details are up to date at CIPC, SARS, and other controlling bodies.
- Information you submit will be placed on a public register and be available for public inspection including personal information you submit as part of your appointment.
- Companies that deliver accounts late receive a late filing penalty.
- Directors are responisible for filing dates on the public record, late filing can damage your reputation and cause penalties and interest to be charged. It also affects your tax clearance, without which you will be severly hampered
- Under the common law, being the fiduciary duties, duty of care, skill and diligence as well as section 234 of the Old Act dealing with the duty of disclosure. The common law duties are detailed here. This means in effect that you may be CRIMINALLY liable…
- Directors need to be fit and proper themselves – they need to have tax clearance in their private capacity