Electric car tax headaches in South Africa

Is this for the hundreds of thousands of EVs that are now on our roads?

Pragmatic answers given the relatively small numbers of EVs on the road today.
  • No, electricity is not fuel on a plain meaning of the word (e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel). Use actual costs.
  • Use your EV’s charge and trip reporting for your charging and travel log books.
  • If your employer gives you free electricity, the fringe benefit is the market value of the electricity.
Or else pay Joon Chong her, no doubt significant, hourly fees for consulting on a more theoretical set of answers that SARS may or may not accept, much the same as my free suggestions above. (My suggestions are worth exactly as much as you paid for them.)
 
EmmanuelGoldstein said:
Joon Chong, why did you have to open your mouth?
Click to expand...
Webber Wentzel is probably being paid by SARS to come up with a policy to tax EV.
It's the same playbook over and over.
SARS hires a research company to come up with a tax policy.
  • Sugar Tax - Professor Karen Hofman Wits Researcher - paid by treasury
  • Plastic Bag Tax - Professor Peter G. Ryan and C. Rice UCT researchers - paid by treasury
  • Carbon Tax - Professor Harald Winkler UCT - paid by treasury.
  • Tyre levy - Professor Diederik (Dries) Kruger - UJ - paid by treasury.
  • CGT (tax on inflation) - Katz Commission - paid by treasury
  • VAT - Margo Commission - paid by treasury
  • etc
TAX is theft - Most destructive force South Africa has ever seen: Dawie Roodt
see https://businesstech.co.za/news/bus...force-south-africa-has-ever-seen-dawie-roodt/
 
system32 said:
Webber Wentzel is probably being paid by SARS to come up with a policy to tax EV.
It's the same playbook over and over.
SARS hires a research company to come up with a tax policy.
  • Sugar Tax - Professor Karen Hofman Wits Researcher - paid by treasury
  • Plastic Bag Tax - Professor Peter G. Ryan and C. Rice UCT researchers - paid by treasury
  • Carbon Tax - Professor Harald Winkler UCT - paid by treasury.
  • Tyre levy - Professor Diederik (Dries) Kruger - UJ - paid by treasury.
  • CGT (tax on inflation) - Katz Commission - paid by treasury
  • VAT - Margo Commission - paid by treasury
  • etc
TAX is theft - Most destructive force South Africa has ever seen: Dawie Roodt
see https://businesstech.co.za/news/bus...force-south-africa-has-ever-seen-dawie-roodt/
Click to expand...

There are a few problems with this line of argument. The first is that SARS is not National Treasury. One administers the tax laws, the other is responsible for tax policy that is translated into tax laws. The second is that some of the taxes listed were not initially put forward by National Treasury but rather by other government departments. The third is that the Katz Commission did not recommend CGT. From the initial guide to the CGT announcement: “The Katz Commission, on the other hand, acknowledged the case for a tax on capital gains, while recommending that it should not be implemented due to its complexity and the capacity of the tax administration at that time (1995).” The fourth is that the Margo Commission did not recommend VAT, it was the alternative to their primary recommendation of a more obscure tax to replace General Sales Tax. Etc.
 
Like they say the only thing guaranteed are death and taxes. The government wants its pound of flesh and anything else it can find a way to create a law to allow it to take. No wonder the informal sector is so large.
 
Mercury said:
There are a few problems with this line of argument. The first is that SARS is not National Treasury. One administers the tax laws, the other is responsible for tax policy that is translated into tax laws. The second is that some of the taxes listed were not initially put forward by National Treasury but rather by other government departments. The third is that the Katz Commission did not recommend CGT. From the initial guide to the CGT announcement: “The Katz Commission, on the other hand, acknowledged the case for a tax on capital gains, while recommending that it should not be implemented due to its complexity and the capacity of the tax administration at that time (1995).” The fourth is that the Margo Commission did not recommend VAT, it was the alternative to their primary recommendation of a more obscure tax to replace General Sales Tax. Etc.
Click to expand...
So you agree that Government funds research that justifies tax theft.
Be it Dept of Environmental Affairs or Treasury or SARS, etc paying for research - it's all funded by government to justify tax.

The Katz recommendation was wrong and ignored advice on CGT being a tax on inflation, being a tax on already taxed income and discouraging investment, but the justification was a share-options loop hole being closed.

A South African family earning R1 million per year get only 3c of value for every R1 they pay in tax​

See https://newsday.co.za/business/2485...nly-3c-of-value-for-every-r1-they-pay-in-tax/

In ZA the state via tax is killing the economy
30% of GDP in taxes is taking investment money out of the economy.

Instead of increasing taxes, government should stop corruption improve efficiency and spend better. 3c of value is ridiculous.
 
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I have no knowledge of who funded the research, if anyone did. I merely pointed out the obvious factual errors in your reply. Given how many there are, well, I have my suspicions as to the assertions around the funding question.

As the 30% of GDP figure, that's not the number on page 36 of the 2026 Budget Review. Looking at Table 4.5 on page 39, a taxable income of R1 million or more puts you in the top 5% of registered taxpayers. There are no workings in the article cited to support the 3 cents in the Rand. I have no doubt there are some, with assumptions to underpin them, but another economist with different assumptions would come up with a different number.

Finally, in response to your repeated assertion that tax is theft, a quote from a renowned jurist: “Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society.” Whether we get full value for the price we pay in South Africa is a good question if one looks the Auditor-General’s reports. So, are you doing anything to encourage your elected representatives to meaningfully engage with those reports?
 
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