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2 weeks ago | 
moonstone.co.za | Amanda Visser
National Treasury and the South African Revenue Service are ready for a value-added tax increase of half-a-percentage point in May and another half-a-percentage point in April next year. Treasury held a workshop on Friday where it appears that the rate and tax increases announced in the second round of Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s Budget Speech will go ahead.
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2 weeks ago | 
citizen.co.za | Amanda Visser
National Treasury went ahead and introduced the Rates and Monetary Amounts and Amendment of Revenue Laws Bill on Friday by notice in the Government Gazette. The draft bill, as published on 12 March, provides for the highly disputed value-added tax (Vat) increase, the expansion of the list of zero-rated items, increases in sin taxes, and adjustments to tax brackets.
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2 weeks ago | 
flipboard.com | Amanda Visser
Let’s be honest about this VAT hike; nobody has an idea what’s going on. There are some things called fiscal framework, a committee, a parliament and …
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3 weeks ago | 
citizen.co.za | Amanda Visser
Recent interventions by the Office of the Tax Ombud (OTO) have demonstrated the impact of inefficient tax administration and procedural delays on taxpayers. The South African Revenue Service (Sars) was admonished for delays and the inefficient handling of its own dispute and objection process. In one instance, its conduct resulted in a taxpayer being subjected to debt collection steps despite his objection having been resolved in his favour – causing “unnecessary distress”.
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3 weeks ago | 
flipboard.com | Amanda Visser
Africa's incredible 'city of gold' with the largest goldmine in the worldThe African city was established after the discovery of gold in 1886. Not only does one African city have the largest gold mine by reserves, but it …
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1 month ago | 
moonstone.co.za | Amanda Visser
The contentious nature of the phrase “bona fide inadvertent error” received some attention in the 2025 Budget Review. The courts have recently interpreted the phrase somewhat differently to what the South African Revenue Service (SARS) has in mind. The bona fide inadvertent error provision was inserted into the Tax Administration Act (TAA) to provide taxpayers with an exclusion from an understatement penalty (USP) when they make an error without the deliberate intention to defraud the fiscus.
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1 month ago | 
moonstone.co.za | Amanda Visser
It is prudent to assume that the proposed value-added tax (VAT) increase of one percentage point over two years will be passed by Parliament, says Gerhard Badenhorst, director in Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr’s tax and exchange control practice. Businesses will have to review their accounting, point-of-sale, and billing systems, as well as the reports they generate from their systems to complete their VAT returns.
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1 month ago | 
citizen.co.za | Amanda Visser
Ordinary South Africans are walking away from the 2025 budget bruised and bloodied. Government not only proposed an increase in the value-added tax (Vat) rate, but their income tax burden has increased by R18 billion. The partial relief for bracket creep provided for in the original version of the 2025 budget has been wiped off the table. There will be no inflationary adjustment, not even for low-income households. Nor is there any inflationary increase in medical credits.
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1 month ago | 
flipboard.com | Amanda Visser
Economists weigh in on the controversial VAT increase in SA BudgetBanele Ginindza Economists saw the step-up 0.5 percentage point VAT increase over the next two financial terms as not only messy, but an indication of …
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1 month ago | 
citizen.co.za | Amanda Visser
The thing about populist ideas is that they have very little connection to reality. The same goes with the every so often (or very often) call for a wealth tax as the solution to South Africa’s fiscal woes. The number of rich people continues to shrink because of emigration but also because people are getting ‘poorer’ due to the lack of economic growth and opportunities.
