LETTER: Leave unit trusts alone

Cy Jacobs is completely right to condemn the Treasury’s proposal to change how unit trusts are taxed (“Unit trust tax proposal is anti-growth”, November 26).

South Africans are already over-taxed. Rather than introducing additional taxes, the government should be focusing on promoting economic liberalisation to encourage economic growth, and to generate more wealth. Unfortunately, the ideology of the ANC seems to be more about punishing a perceived wealthy elite than embracing any sort of rational economic policy.

If the government was serious about helping South Africans it would not just leave unit trusts alone, and therefore allow the investment schemes to produce wealth for countless South Africans, but also encourage saving and investment through tax incentives for those who save and invest their wealth rather than squandering it.

More money invested in the private sector is worth far more than any amount of money in the hands of greedy, capricious and incompetent public officials. The private sector produces jobs, opportunities and sustainable growth. The government produces corruption, bloat and incompetence.

It is better to enable more South Africans to be able to become taxpayers through private sector investment and job creation, than to stretch a dwindling tax-base even further. Hopefully, policymakers will wise up before the money runs out and the JSE becomes a starved wretch.

Nicholas Woode-Smith
Cape Town

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