Belinda Beresford
The government is continuing its campaign to ensure that taxes become as unavoidable as death for South Africans with the latest budget, which reduced the overall income tax burden while attacking fringe benefits such as car allowances.
The budget saw about R3,7-billion knocked off the income tax burden for South Africans, with the larger part of the benefits being felt lower down the income scale, but filtering through to the highest earners.
The government estimates people earning less than R60 000 will get 47% of the income tax relief, while those getting more than R120 000 a year will get 16% of the relief. The balance will be enjoyed by people earning between these limits.
The primary tax rebate has been increased to R3 515 from R3 215, while the extra allowance to people older than 65 years has also been raised to R2 660 from R2 500.
One sneaky affliction for taxpayers is “bracket creep” – when inflation-related rises move individuals into higher tax brackets without them seeing any real increase in their income. This particularly affects lower income taxpayers. One method of reducing this is both to reduce the number and widen the range of tax bands.
The budget saw the number of tax brackets reduced from seven to six as the government continued towards its objective of only four brackets.
Part of this rationalisation meant taxpayers in the R46 000 to R60 000 bracket saw the marginal tax rate fall to 39% from 41%.
A major counterpoint to reducing the income tax burden on individuals has been to widen the tax base. The budget review says that in 1997 just less than 45% of total income tax came from the 9,6% of taxpayers who earn more than R100 001.
More taxpayers mean lower taxes to achieve the same level of income. Part of the tax base broadening campaign saw the South African Revenue Service given organisational autonomy last year, which allowed it to operate more like a private-sector company. Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel says the government is banking on the revenue service collecting an extra R2-billion through efficiency gains this year.
As part of this campaign, the revenue service has been sending out hit squads of tax inspectors checking information, inspecting businesses and walking the streets to find unregistered businesses and individuals.
Somewhat depressingly for the registered taxpayers among us, from the beginning of October last year to the end of January this campaign found default rates of around a third on value-added tax, pay-as-you-earn and income tax grounds.