EDITORIAL: Not a wealth of choices for SA
There are existing taxes that can and must be used to tackle SA’s inequality
The Davis tax committee concluded five years of work and 25 reports on Thursday with a big one: SA is not ready or able to introduce a new wealth tax, and other avenues should be used to increase taxes on the rich. The request to the committee to investigate a wealth tax was added to its mandate by former finance minister Pravin Gordhan in 2017, just as SA’s fiscal fortunes were in steep decline and the pressure to find more revenue was rising. A wealth tax was also a measure that trade unions and civil society organisations have called for, for decades, as a way to address historical patterns of inequality. Aware of these difficulties and political pressures, the report has been careful. It does not rule out a wealth tax at some point in the future, its main conclusion being that more preparation and research must be done before it can be contemplated. It suggests that the South African Revenue Service begin by collecting information on taxpayers’ assets in preparation for a possib...
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