Another growing threat for taxes in South Africa: SARS
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The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has flagged the country’s high youth unemployment rate as a potential future problem for the country’s taxes.
The concerns are highlighted in the revenue collector’s annual performance plan for 2021/2022, which details some of the key issues facing the group and how it plans to address them.
“South Africa is a country of young people, as recent statistics released by Stats SA indicate. The same is true for our current individual tax base,” it said.
“The high, and growing, unemployment amongst the youth is a serious threat to the tax base and the overall integrity of the tax system. It has become a serious constraint to revenue growth and will cause further strain on government to increase spending on social benefits.”
Bleak jobs data for South Africa at the start of 2021
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The second wave of infections and associated lockdown at the start of 2021 led to net job losses with significant labour market churn, according to the latest National Income Dynamics Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (NIDS-CRAM).
The NIDS-CRAM is a study conducted by a national consortium of 30 social science researchers from local universities, as well as groups like the Human Sciences Research Council and the Department of Education.
The survey is a comprehensive and nationally representative survey of how the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown impacted South African households, with a particular focus on income and employment.
Push for new e-cigarette and smoking laws in South Africa
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Public health researchers have called on the government to pass the Control of Tobacco and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill into law.
The bill is expected to further regulate the use, marketing and sales of e-cigarettes or vapes in South Africa, with these products currently operating in a legislative vacuum.
In a report published by the Africa Centre for Tobacco Industry Monitoring and Policy Research (ATIM), the researchers said that it has now been two years since the bill was closed for public comments.
During this time the e-cigarette industry, currently largely unregulated, has further taken hold in South Africa.
Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has been granted leave to appeal the Western Cape High Court’s ruling…
Hunger increases in SA despite Covid-19 welfare payments Reuters > By Reuters - 17 February 2021 - 10:14 The hunger rate compares to 14% recorded in an official survey in 2018, showing the impact of the pandemic, researchers wrote. Image: 123RF/nito500
Eighteen percent of South African households reported someone going hungry at the end of last year, a survey published on Wednesday found, with the situation worsening despite welfare payments to fight the impact of Covid-19.
The hunger rate compares to 14% recorded in an official survey in 2018, showing the impact of the pandemic, researchers wrote in findings of the National Income Dynamics Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (NIDS-CRAM), which followed 10,000 adults.