The individual's tax burden will continue to get heavier, says Keith Huxham, professor of tax at the University of Cape Town.
He told a Weekend Argus/Seeff Trust Investment Club meeting this week that a commitment 10 years ago by the then government to move to an indirect tax had come to nothing. Instead, there was a major and continuing move to individual tax.
This was clear from the percentages individuals contributed to total fiscal collection since 1986, when the then minister of finance promised to lighten the burden on income earners.
Individuals were currently contributing 41 percent of total fiscal collection, while VAT, paid solely by individuals, was 26 percent of the total.
"If you take 41 percent of personal tax and 26 percent of VAT, you get 67 percent of total fiscal collections coming from individuals."
In 1986, individuals contributed 29 percent to the total fiscal0collection, with 26 percent coming from GST. In 1992, they contributed 38 percent, with 24 percent coming from VAT.
Increasingly, burdened taxpayers were a steadily shrinking part of the population as the non-tax paying component expanded. The government was in a crisis, scratching the bottom of any barrel for money, Huxham said.
"The taxation of pension funds is a desperate attempt to find a source of money."