EDITORIAL: An acute tax conundrum
The big question is whether the South African Revenue Service is able to collect whatever Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan pencils into his budget
Ahead of the finance minister’s big event in Parliament next week, budget previews are coming in thick and fast from SA’s economists, as well as from the country’s tax practitioners. Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan already put a number – of R28bn – to the projected amount of extra tax revenue he will need to raise for the 2017-18 year when he revised his fiscal projections in October’s medium-term budget. He had to revise down his economic growth forecasts in February and again in October and had to reduce the expenditure ceiling as well as raising the tax take in order to stay on the path of fiscal consolidation he had promised ratings agencies and investors. It must be at least possible that the figure of R28bn in extra revenue for this year, along with another R15bn next year, will have to be revised up again because economic growth has disappointed yet again. Meanwhile, though, the tax experts are feverishly trying to work out where Gordhan is going to find the extra cash in a w...
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