Tag: Personal Income Tax (PIT)

Given the worsening economic realities still facing the Minister of Finance this year, it came as a pleasant surprise that he provided 5.2% adjustments to the individual tax brackets and rebates, resulting in real personal income tax relief for the already stretched individual taxpayers. 

Budget statements have in recent years perennially made downward revisions in economic growth projections. Disappointing growth outcomes compared to official forecasts is partly attributed to the inability to implement planned structural reforms that would have delivered improved growth outcomes.

On 1 February 2020, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) released an exciting media statement, indicating that the revenue authority has embarked on a journey to reinvent SARS.

John Bercow, the speaker of the United Kingdom parliament, was recently referred to by a reporter as “the marmite speaker”. The expression was developed, originating in the UK, using marmite as an adjective to mean you either love it or hate it (or them) – but cannot be indifferent to it.

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni delivered a macabre Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBSP) to Parliament on October 30. The MTBPS communicates to government and the people the economic context of the country and fiscal spending priorities over the coming three years. (It does not include detailed spending plans or tax proposals, which are left to the main budget in February.)

Against the backdrop of the weakening Rand, the pain point of the increased marginal tax rate of 45 per cent, the increase in the VAT rate by 1 percent in April 2018 and the decline in household spend, can South Africans really afford another tax rate hike?

Finance Minister, Tito Mboweni, delivers his first Budget Speech on 20 February at a difficult time for the South African economy. Even though President Cyril Ramaphosa has done much to restore business confidence in his first year in office, GDP growth remains weak, government finances are in relatively poor shape, and renewed load shedding is hurting business confidence.

A major concern on the minds of business and the public in general is how tax revenue collections are performing and whether we can expect further tax increases in the 2019 Budget.

The VAT hike as part of the 2018 Budget Speech poses the risk of eroding the spending power of poor and lower-income households, exacerbating poverty and increasing inequality. VAT is a regressive tax - Value added tax (VAT) – charged on most goods and services at a rate of 14% – is levied irrespective of how much somebody earns, making it a regressive tax.

Personal income tax - When looking at the changes to personal income tax in isolation (i.e. ignoring the increase in the VAT rate and the usual increases in “sin taxes”, the news in the budget was probably as good as could have been expected.