Budget 2017-18: here’s why we should pay less tax
Budget time is approaching, but higher tax rates are part of the problem, not the solution
South Africans will soon learn how much more of their disposable income and wealth will be extracted to sustain the nation’s credit rating. They have been forewarned, though they do not appear forearmed, to resist the incoming tide of still more tax and less income to spend. They will be told, correctly, why limiting the borrowing requirements of the government (the fiscal deficit) is essential for holding down interest rates and the cost to taxpayers of servicing the debt (old and new) incurred on their behalf. What will not receive much attention from the minister of finance is a recognition of the influence of taxes and tax rates on the ability of economically active South Africans to pay these taxes – so that tax rates have to rise even as the economy continues to flirt with recession. Evidence of policy failure, in the form of persistently dismal growth in South African incomes, is there for all to recognise. The rating agencies have identified the lack of economic growth in S...
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