Fight graft by taking leaf from tax books of Ancient Greeks

tax fraud
Fight graft by taking leaf from tax books of Ancient Greeks

The tax debate, internationally and in South Africa, is progressively focusing on closing perceived tax loopholes (in order to boost collections) and increasing self-assessment through vigorous auditing by the tax authorities.

In pursuing this goal, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has appointed Judge Dennis Davis as the chairman of the Davis Tax Committee.

Davis has been quoted as saying that the challenge for the committee is to design a tax system that, among other things, achieves “the spending needs of the government and its distributional ambitions”.

 The collection of taxes is important but addresses only one part of the equation.