Tax-free savings: A word from National Treasury
It’s a case of slow and steady for the tax-free savings market with no material changes to the regulations likely to be introduced.
We spoke to Christopher Axelson, director of personal income taxes and saving at National Treasury, to get a glimpse of what the crystal ball has in store for tax-free enthusiasts in 2017.Not much, evidently. With tax-free savings accounts (TFSAs) still in their infancy, Treasury is of the view that it is still early days and too soon for any drastic changes. With over 260,000 accounts opened in the first year and 39,458 of those belonging to firsttime investors, Treasury is satisfied that its initiative topromote a greater savings culture is on the right path.“It’s a very good start,” says Axelson. “You see, when incentives are introduced to the market it’s always hard to get exposure and penetrate with the general public, so we’re satisfied with thefigures.”While Treasury is satisfied, Axelson says more data is still neededto properly gauge the product’s performance. He says Treasury will continue collecting and monitoring data from the South African Revenue Service to be in a bet...
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