FERIAL HAFFAJEE: KPMG's malfeasant role in SARS ruin needs further auditing
As a middle-class taxpayer, I get very little for my taxes. Like our Nigerian counterparts, we are becoming like mini-governments providing for ourselves. At South Africa's personal tax rates, our education, health and security should be taken care of. Yet these are additional costs to a very high tax rate. This year, the VAT rate is going up, too. Then the Treasury imposes more indirect taxes every year. Plastic bag tax, sugar tax, fuel levy, new excises on supposed luxuries like your phone will all wallop your pocket this year. The singular genius of Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan (back when he was the taxman) was to make paying taxes feel like a patriotic exercise, which I came to feel quite proud of doing. He also drove efficiency, so your taxes were settled quickly, and, on the rare occasion when the taxman owed you something, you got paid out speedily. My last return was efficient, but the system for processing it is in decline if you look at the acerbic reports of...
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