So you thought Trevor Manuel, our Minister of Finance, treated you well in the last Budget by eliminating fiscal drag - that nasty little trick used extensively by the last government to push you into ever-higher tax brackets.
It worked like this: your salary went up in line with inflation but the tax brackets at which you paid an ever-bigger percentage of what you earned in tax were not adjusted.
In the last Budget, for the first time, Manuel adjusted the brackets so that you were not paying more tax purely as a result of inflation.
But this is not the end of the story, Marius du Toit, a senior actuary at Sanlam Group Benefits, says.
Du Toit has calculated in to the sums other little tricks our Trevor pulled out of his Budget top hat. They were changes to the way medical contributions were taxed as well as the increase from 17 percent to 25 percent on the tax in interest and net rental earnings of your retirement fund. When you take these into account, Manuel was not exactly playing the gift giver, but rather opting for the part of Scrooge.
He has worked out how much you could be affected by all the tax adjustments. (See the table, which shows how you are affected.)
Du Toit says in cases where your employer contributes 100 percent of your contributions to a medical aid fund, you will be taxed on one-third of this amount in future. The amount in tax obviously depends on the type of medical scheme, the medical aid contributions and your personal circumstances, e.g. the number of dependants.
The table is based on the scenario of a medical aid member with two dependants who belongs to a reasonably-comprehensive non-contributory medical scheme.
"Without exception, this tax is more than the saving resulting from the adjustments to the tax scales."
Du Toit says the increase in the rate of tax on retirement funds could result in a further reduction of your disposable income.
"The increase means that the rate of return earned by retirement funds will decline by around 0,4 percent.
"In defined contribution funds, it means that the benefits available to members of retirement funds will be considerably lower."
Depending on how far you are from retirement, the benefits could be up to 11 percent less than before the 1998 Budget.
Du Toit warns that if you are affected you must give serious consideration to making extra provision for retirement if you wish to ensure you have sufficient funds to live on after retirement.
The last column indicates the additional contribution required each year to place you in the same position you were in before the Budget. In the calculation, it has been assumed that 10 percent of salary is used in respect of retirement, and that you are 25 years from retirement.
If you contribute to an approved pension fund or retirement annuity, you may deduct the additional amount from your taxable income.
This could bring about a small saving, resulting in the Government receiving less in tax revenue than it anticipated.