The 103,000 taxpayers who earn more than R1.5m a year — 1.4% of all taxpayers — will pay 26.3% of all personal income tax, or R127bn, after the tax proposals announced by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan in Cape Town on Wednesday. A new top personal income tax rate of 45% will be introduced for these individuals, raising R4.4bn. The previous top bracket of 41% was set at R701,301. The rich will also be hit by the increase in the withholding tax on dividends, which will go up from 15% to 20% and will generate R6.8bn. These and other tax proposals will raise R28bn and increase the tax burden from 26% of GDP to 26.7% in 2017-18. A further R15bn in tax will have to be raised in 2018-19. PwC tax policy leader Kyle Mandy said the Treasury’s heavy focus on taxing the rich and the failure to rather look at increasing indirect taxes was disappointing. "The overriding concern I have is the overall mix of how the R28bn is to be raised, primarily through direct taxes. That is certainly not pro-g...
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