When Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan delivers his budget speech in February next year, he'll tell you that you need to pay more tax. It will come in the form of higher excise duties on the fun stuff: alcohol and cigarettes, as well as an inevitable increase in the price of fuel. Plus, if you are in the top 10% of income earners, he will tell you that you need to pay more income tax. Currently, the marginal rate sits at 41% of everything you earn above R700,000 a year. Expect it to rise to as much as 45% over the next couple of years. The message will be delivered with the calm benevolence of your pharmacist advising on the application of a suppository - it's not very comfortable but in your own best interests. At the risk of torturing the medical analogies, the growing tax burden for many is an increasingly bitter pill to swallow. South African income taxpayers have for a while been getting increasingly angry about the abuse of public money, the biggest single symbol being the R246-...
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