Author: Ferdie Schneider, National Head: Tax, BDO South Africa The Minister has various options at his disposal concerning how he could use VAT as a fiscal instrument to raise revenue and reduce the budget deficit that has occupied the brain trust in government. South Africa’s VAT rate has been constant since 1993 when it was raised from 10% to 14%, it is also relatively low compared to international standards. Emerging markets average at approximately 18%, whereas developed countries average at approximately 17%.
Category: Budget 2015/16
Budget 2015 – Social development budget up 7.9% #Budget2015
The 2015/16 social development budget allocation of R155.3 billion will largely be spent on assisting vulnerable groups, Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene said. The 7.9 percent increase in the budget over the previous year was to cater for a larger number of beneficiaries, mostly in the child support grant, and higher grant pay-outs, he told the National Assembly in tabling his first main budget.
Budget 2015 – Nene appoints advisory committee to resolve the woes of SARS #Budget2015
Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene announced that he has appointed an advisory committee headed by a retired judge to help resolve the woes of the SA Revenue Service (Sars). Nene made the announcement shortly before tabling his first main budget in the National Assembly, for 2015/16, and said the committee would be headed by retired Judge Frank Kroon.
Budget 2015 – The full 2015 budget speech as delivered by Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene.
Honourable Speaker – I have the honour to present the first budget of our fifth democratic Parliament. Members of the House, and fellow South Africans – Over the past twenty years we have built houses, delivered water and electricity, improved access to schools and health care. Yet there are people living in shacks, there are schools without sanitation, there are patients without care.
Budget 2015 – Taxed to death
Author: TJ Strydom Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene has gone for the jugular of the middle class. After half a decade of Pravin Gordhan taxing by stealth, Nene yesterday announced a raft of measures that will hurt high income-earners, luxury home-buyers and car-owners directly and almost immediately.
Nene: No (more) tax hikes – maybe
Author: MARIAM ISA – TimesLive.co.za Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene insists that further tax hikes are not inevitable in the next few years – despite a pressing need to raise extra revenue to finance new policy goals, and control budget deficits in the face of lacklustre economic growth.
Matthew Lester: Budget 2015/16 – Is the new South Africa sustainable?
By Professor Matthew Lester To see the full income tax tables from Budget 2015, click here. In these tough times it is difficult to take a long-term view on sustainability. So when it comes to the National Budget speech the media concentrates on the immediate implications such as tax increases and regurgitating seemingly meaningless numbers. The 2015 State of the Nation Address ‘SONA’ degenerated into a slanging match, precipitated by the very important governance issue of Nkandla. Perhaps the biggest disgrace in the Nkandla debacle is that it has turned our political leaders attention away from a country in crisis.
Fuel levy likely to more than cover RAF claim costs
Author: Donwald Pressly – Fin24 Cape Town – The government expects last week’s hike in the fuel levy to cover the monthly claim settlement costs of the embattled Road Accident Fund (RAF) with a little bit to spare, according to an answer provided to MPs by Transport Minister Dipuo Peters.
Is the budget really pro-poor?
Author: Dewald van Rensburg, City Press Grants The centrepiece of the fiscal policy’s progressiveness is the massive social-grant system, which provides income of R120bn to millions of poor South Africans. This year’s increases to the grants are, however, almost guaranteed to decrease their beneficiaries’ spending power. The grants are going up by 4.4%. Treasury says this is in line with its projections for inflation for the first half of this year.
Nene is running out of options – expert
Author: Carin Smith Cape Town – South Africans should remember that Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene can only do so much in his budget 2015 as he is not the president, said deputy CEO of the SA Institute of Tax Practitioners (Sait) Keith Engel. READ: Nene’s budget stymied by political realities “The question is whether Nene has the backing,” he said at a post budget event hosted by Deloitte in Cape Town.