A tax revolt is underway in South Africa

  • Thread starter Thread starter Daily Investor
  • Start date Start date
rh1 said:
Taxis, spaza shops, hawkers, foreigners have not been paying tax for a long time.
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If you think that's a big deal, I recommend you attend a livestock auction or two, or if you really want to see how to dodge tax, a wildlife auction. I need to attend a good few of these a year, and the amount of cash (like cold hard cash on or under the table) trading that happens here will have your jaw dangling on the floor if it is not something you are used to seeing.
 
vigras rojara said:
I wonder how many people are "choosing to stop working, as the tax burden is too high", as claimed by Dawie? Can't be very many.

They could probably be counted on Oscar Pistorius' toes.
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Depends, people who have already retired could stop doing the extra work if they did due diligence when saving for retirement over the years The 1%ers could, but i think they live for work, and not working would literally kill them.
 
Bad Ballie said:
Depends, people who have already retired could stop doing the extra work if they did due diligence when saving for retirement over the years The 1%ers could, but i think they live for work, and not working would literally kill them.
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Absolutely agree.
 
Sideshow Bob said:
And blacks don't pay much tax either. That is almost 85% of population not paying tax. It is just you & me and some mybb members that are floating this economy.
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Blacks pay 41%...same as whites actually.

A rapidly growing Black middle-and-upper class is expanding the tax base at the top, while severe structural unemployment traps the vast majority of the population entirely outside the income tax threshold.

So I don't know why you have such a negative view of Black's tax contributions.
 
Zellephant said:
If you think that's a big deal, I recommend you attend a livestock auction or two, or if you really want to see how to dodge tax, a wildlife auction. I need to attend a good few of these a year, and the amount of cash (like cold hard cash on or under the table) trading that happens here will have your jaw dangling on the floor if it is not something you are used to seeing.
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I see plenty of people, every day, as I have seen for most of my life, that could not possibly be paying tax.
Brett Kebble was also a noteworthy case
 
Bad Ballie said:
Depends, people who have already retired could stop doing the extra work if they did due diligence when saving for retirement over the years The 1%ers could, but i think they live for work, and not working would literally kill them.
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Exactly, so the people you lose through this are exactly the type of people you would want to keep active in the workforce as long as possible.
 
I suppose he is correct in a way, while an actual revolt is impossible without buy in from big business, which will never happen under any circumstances. People are starting to watch their spend, etc which does deny the government income they used to have access to. Simply changing your spending habits has an effect on the VAT and TAX you pay, buying tangible commodities like, gold, instead of leaving money in the bank has the same effect etc.
 
Zellephant said:
If you think that's a big deal, I recommend you attend a livestock auction or two, or if you really want to see how to dodge tax, a wildlife auction. I need to attend a good few of these a year, and the amount of cash (like cold hard cash on or under the table) trading that happens here will have your jaw dangling on the floor if it is not something you are used to seeing.
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So a few cows and a couch you say :ROFL:
 
The effective tax revolt in high-burden or low-trust environments is rarely a coordinated political uprising by payroll employees or large corporations. Those groups face structural constraints that make exit costly. The real pressure comes from the extensive margin: the growth of the informal (shadow, underground, black-market) economy, which expands until it can hollow out the formal tax base. When the informal sector becomes dominant, the formal sector does not merely shrink, it can lose critical mass. Network effects reverse: banks, suppliers, and customers prefer to deal off the books because that is where the volume is. The residual formal firms face higher effective burdens (they still pay taxes and compliance costs while competing against non-payers) and either exit, shrink, or themselves drift into partial informality. When the formal system becomes sufficiently burdensome or illegitimate relative to the alternatives, the path of least resistance for the marginal actor is not political lobbying or open defiance. It is quiet exit into cash, barter, and selective payments to officials. Over time that exit can become systemic. The formal sector does not stage a dramatic tax revolt, it simply atrophies until the only remaining extraction mechanism is the informal one.
 
Cius said:
Agree 100%. A lot of people I know who are leaving the country cite failing service delivery as part of why they go. We get very little back for our taxes. Those that are here are going the extra mile to reduce the tax they pay. Doing my part via crap like etolls and SABC TV licenses but the majority of my tax disappears off my payslip. little I can do but be smart on my tax return.
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So I've been paying my TV License the last couple of years because I wasnt liss for the crap. But then, my license became due this month, and this was the email SABC sent me.
Very first notice:
1786602962091.png

So screw it, not paying them anymore. If they want to start with a threat, they will not get my money.
 
Was interested to see the effective tax comparison graphed. SA really gets you on those low incomes in comparison to other countries. Also, perhaps I Should move to Texas...

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cguy said:
Was interested to see the effective tax comparison graphed. SA really gets you on those low incomes in comparison to other countries. Also, perhaps I Should move to Texas...

View attachment 1929443
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Holy moly. So up to 3.2mil a year, we are significantly higher tax rate than even the UK. Where are all those people jumping up and down to tell us our taxes aren’t so bad….
 
SARS are also sneaky. My provisional tax rebates for 2026 were declined.
I wrote them a letter in December and received an acknowledgement 20 days later
6 reminders to reply just generate another reference number x 6
In July there is a R36k "penalty" for submitting tax late
On calling, I am told to pay it and motivate for a refund
I ask why my letters do not get a reply
"We will call you back"
Nothing happens
 
chrisc said:
SARS are also sneaky. My provisional tax rebates for 2026 were declined.
I wrote them a letter in December and received an acknowledgement 20 days later
6 reminders to reply just generate another reference number x 6
In July there is a R36k "penalty" for submitting tax late
On calling, I am told to pay it and motivate for a refund
I ask why my letters do not get a reply
"We will call you back"
Nothing happens
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Yeah. The bastards also decided I must once again go through verification to prove a bunch of nonsense to them, that they can get from my public available records - because they refuse to believe I don’t owe them any tax.

I will do exactly what I did last year, and just ignore their requests for documents for verification, and then if they raise a new assessment after I miss their deadline to submit verification, I will fight them on it then. I’m don’t playing into their hand. They need to start doing the legwork now if they want to chase me around for small change
 
those words are all jumbled up and in the wrong order ...... they are more accurate when stated like this

"South Africa is revolting" (nothing to do with the rebellion version as stated by Google but all to do with "offensive to the senses" version)
 
MrGray said:
The effective tax revolt in high-burden or low-trust environments is rarely a coordinated political uprising by payroll employees or large corporations. Those groups face structural constraints that make exit costly. The real pressure comes from the extensive margin: the growth of the informal (shadow, underground, black-market) economy, which expands until it can hollow out the formal tax base. When the informal sector becomes dominant, the formal sector does not merely shrink, it can lose critical mass. Network effects reverse: banks, suppliers, and customers prefer to deal off the books because that is where the volume is. The residual formal firms face higher effective burdens (they still pay taxes and compliance costs while competing against non-payers) and either exit, shrink, or themselves drift into partial informality. When the formal system becomes sufficiently burdensome or illegitimate relative to the alternatives, the path of least resistance for the marginal actor is not political lobbying or open defiance. It is quiet exit into cash, barter, and selective payments to officials. Over time that exit can become systemic. The formal sector does not stage a dramatic tax revolt, it simply atrophies until the only remaining extraction mechanism is the informal one.
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Very good comment and exactly how things are currently playing out. This is where and how the tax revolt is gaining momentum.
 
The elephant in the room with Dawie's position is that the problem is surely the perverse incentives at play not '[one particular political party]' (that he naively thinks can be replaced with another political group who are angels and all will be well).

There is a far more pernicious predator class behind the ANC.

The ANC are the hand-maiden of the Epstein class. If the Cape were to break away, their play would be to install the DA equivalent(with someone like GHL at their beck and call), which would become their tool of choice.
 
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