March 2013: SA budget deficit – who’s fooling who

…was an ’80’s R&B hit song by Al Hudson. Sitting through budget comments at a recent tax seminar considering the stats gave rise to the question: who is funding South Africa’s 2013/4 budget deficit of ZAR190 billion? Put in perspective:

– South African population: 50 million

– 17 million receiving social grants

– 3.6 million tax payers

– 1.5 million tax returns per annum

That’s as good as it gets.

The picture is clear: those who have the means fit the bill. An enormous and worrying onus given the fact the country’s tax base is declining. In the meantime the tax review commission, headed by Judge Dennis Davis, is evaluating the current tax system with the view to increase tax revenues and attempt to cut government expenditure.

South Africa remains a country of opportunity and challenge, first and third world respectively. As a nation we have the right of passage to virtually every country in the world, to make a nest where we please.
Life is about choices.Where to grow? Where to live? Where to retire? Plenty of South Africans leave the country and many come back home…

The million $ question many fellow countrymen don’t ask themselves: where do I want to invest my money for growth and safekeeping? What financial sense does it make to live and work on a different continent from where your retirement funds are hosted? In reality, we have the freedom of choice to move our money where we please, but the economically fair question begs: why pay taxes in a country that you’ve elected to leave?

Who’s helping to fund the SA budget deficit? South African taxpayers of the world, it’s time to think…