South Africa’s 4.9 million personal income taxpayers contributed 36% of the total R986 billion collected in 2014-15, the largest source of tax revenue. Companies contributed 19%, down from 27% in 2008-09, and VAT 27%.
South Africa’s tax to GDP ratio is 26%, the 10th highest in the world, compares to a world average of 15%. However, if you look at the poor value we receive and corruption and theft of state resources, and the services we have to buy, e.g. education, security and health because the state has failed in its provision, the burden on the country’s small tax base is far worse than the ratios suggest. And now they’re talking about a wealth tax.
It’s on this point – poor value for money – that there has been talk about a “tax revolt”, the most recent comments from Judge Dennis Davis, head of the Davis Tax Commission.
For our taxes, in Jacob Zuma we have the "world's highest paid, worst value-for-money president". His cabinet, no surprise, is one of the largest in the world and most costly. Many people were appointed to repay their support during his campaign for ANC president and ousting of former president Thabo Mbeki at the Polokwane conference in 2007, and after.
Cabinet size does not translate into efficiency and effectiveness, as proved by their performance – both education portfolios, communications, public enterprises ... need I go on. And the quality of most of his ministers is dire, and we’re not sure what function many serve.
But all this is a culmination, fruition, apotheosis of Big Man politics – the party (and its leader) is more important than the state, as Zuma said last week – that this benighted continent has bequeathed the world, from Idi Amin to Robert Mugabe. See journalist Tim Knight's article.
In Big Man politics the big men (and women) must have presidential palaces, planes and so on larger and more opulent than their peers – of course, all paid for by the state – to show they are BIG men. (What does psychology say about some men and their flashy toys - penile inadequacy and jealousy? A "penis" painting in the offing?) Think Zuma’s R250 million Nkandla palace, R4 billion plane and R16 million on his wives while the country is burning as protests sweep the country.
So, not counting his R3.2 million ($223 500) salary, column 1 shows what the 4.9 million taxpayers are collectively spending on Zuma and column 2 what each, individual taxpayer – you and I – is spending:
Nkandla, new plane, numerous wives - hundreds of millions.
Jacob, spare a thought for the taxpayers, your countrymen, who are facing real financial pressure, while you peruse brochures for your new plane, and while at the Constitutional Court you defend you did not do anything wrong and did not personally benefit from the Nkandla upgrades, which you claim you were not aware of.
Oh, I forgot, the ANC, not country, comes first, so you don't give a damn.
South Africa’s tax to GDP ratio is 26%, the 10th highest in the world, compares to a world average of 15%. However, if you look at the poor value we receive and corruption and theft of state resources, and the services we have to buy, e.g. education, security and health because the state has failed in its provision, the burden on the country’s small tax base is far worse than the ratios suggest. And now they’re talking about a wealth tax.
It’s on this point – poor value for money – that there has been talk about a “tax revolt”, the most recent comments from Judge Dennis Davis, head of the Davis Tax Commission.
For our taxes, in Jacob Zuma we have the "world's highest paid, worst value-for-money president". His cabinet, no surprise, is one of the largest in the world and most costly. Many people were appointed to repay their support during his campaign for ANC president and ousting of former president Thabo Mbeki at the Polokwane conference in 2007, and after.
Cabinet size does not translate into efficiency and effectiveness, as proved by their performance – both education portfolios, communications, public enterprises ... need I go on. And the quality of most of his ministers is dire, and we’re not sure what function many serve.
But all this is a culmination, fruition, apotheosis of Big Man politics – the party (and its leader) is more important than the state, as Zuma said last week – that this benighted continent has bequeathed the world, from Idi Amin to Robert Mugabe. See journalist Tim Knight's article.
In Big Man politics the big men (and women) must have presidential palaces, planes and so on larger and more opulent than their peers – of course, all paid for by the state – to show they are BIG men. (What does psychology say about some men and their flashy toys - penile inadequacy and jealousy? A "penis" painting in the offing?) Think Zuma’s R250 million Nkandla palace, R4 billion plane and R16 million on his wives while the country is burning as protests sweep the country.
So, not counting his R3.2 million ($223 500) salary, column 1 shows what the 4.9 million taxpayers are collectively spending on Zuma and column 2 what each, individual taxpayer – you and I – is spending:
Nkandla, new plane, numerous wives - hundreds of millions.
Jacob, spare a thought for the taxpayers, your countrymen, who are facing real financial pressure, while you peruse brochures for your new plane, and while at the Constitutional Court you defend you did not do anything wrong and did not personally benefit from the Nkandla upgrades, which you claim you were not aware of.
Oh, I forgot, the ANC, not country, comes first, so you don't give a damn.
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