Warning lights flickering for South Africa’s wealthy taxpayers
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“We owe a lot of people a lot of money.”
That blunt, ominous statement by finance minister Tito Mboweni in his 2021 budget speech shows the deep financial hole the South African economy is really in – and warning lights are starting to flicker for South Africa’s wealthy taxpayers.
This is according to Tim Mertens, chairman of Sovereign Trust SA, who said that a key takeaway from the budget was the staggering R213 billion under-collection of tax in 2021 compared to 2020.
This is the largest collection shortfall on record, and comes against a backdrop of a debt burden of R5.2 trillion by 2023/2024.