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Direct access to a Chartered Accountant (SA), with the resources of more than 100 offices supporting the work.
The Tax Shop Houghton is led by Zunaid Abdulla, a Chartered Accountant (SA) who spent seven years managing a packaging business before he ever audited one. That order matters. Most accountants meet a small business from the outside and after the fact, at year end, once the decisions have already been made. He spent the better part of a decade on the inside of one, dealing with suppliers, staff and month end cash rather than reviewing them afterwards.
He qualified through UNISA while working, started his articles at Crowe and completed his articles at Ernst & Young, auditing companies of every size and in most sectors, from owner managed businesses much like the ones this office serves, up to listed groups.
From 2021 he worked on international engagements, in the United States and in Australia, applying US GAAP and Australian accounting standards alongside IFRS. He then moved into industry, finishing as head of finance at a multinational corporate, running the finance function of a subsidiary reporting into a global group.
That range was intentional. Specialising early would have been the easier path, but a business owner rarely arrives with a problem that stays inside one discipline. A cash flow question turns into a debtors question, which turns into a question about a contract. Having worked across a fairly wide set of businesses, fewer of those situations are unfamiliar.
The practical effect is fairly simple. Your annual financial statements are prepared by someone who has spent years auditing them, and your monthly reporting is set up by someone who has had to produce it to a group deadline. When something unusual comes up, there is a reasonable chance it has come up before.
Behind the office sits The Tax Shop, the largest accounting and tax franchise in Southern Africa with more than 100 offices, providing technical support, cloud software and resources that an independent practice would not have on its own.
Book a consultationA brand is not what we tell you it is, it is what you tell other people after you have dealt with us. So we would rather be predictable than impressive. These are the things that do not change, whichever month it is and however busy we are.
Not a call centre, and not a different junior every quarter. Whoever knows your file is who you speak to.
A deadline coming, a SARS letter arriving, a number that looks wrong. You should never learn about it from a penalty notice.
Quoted upfront and in writing. Phoning us with a question does not start a meter.
If the answer is complicated we will say so and explain why. You should never leave a conversation less clear than you arrived.
Thirty minutes, no charge, no obligation. We look at where you are and what it would take to get current.