FOOTNOTES
HILARY JOFFE: Wealth tax could be a symbolic gesture, but it could tax SARS
The complexities involved in measuring and taxing wealth are significant, and a poorly designed wealth tax could have serious adverse consequences
SA’s unacceptably high level of inequality is one of the distinctive, and disturbing features of its economy — and it is the reason the Davis Tax Committee supports the principle of wealth taxes for SA. In practice, however, a couple of other distinctive features of the economy — such as SA’s very well developed retirement fund industry — complicate the task of looking at the kind of annual tax on individuals’ net wealth that some would like to see for SA. The complications, and the thinking, are spelled out in the Davis Committee’s report on the wealth tax, which is one of a cluster of reports which the committee published last week as it wrapped up five years of work in which it published more than 20 reports, delivering on its original 2013 terms of reference from then finance minister Pravin Gordhan and on extra requests since then -the wealth tax included. At 0.67, income inequality in SA, measured by the GINI coefficient, is one of the world’s highest. But wealth inequality is...
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