This year’s budget passed without any tax increases. It is however inevitable, in years to come, that the taxes are going to be raised and no doubt we are going to hear more about that from the person appointed to head the Tax Commission, Judge Dennis Davis. He lectured me at Wits University in tax, and is a highly astute and clever man who was an extremely popular lecturer. One of the problems in South Africa, is that out of a population of approximately 50 million people, only 6 million people pay tax and support millions of others who are not well-off.

Some don’t like that principle, but I have always believed that if one is lucky enough to have a job and be better off than many, there is a duty on you to contribute to society and others, and that is really what tax is about. There is of course also a duty on government, who spends our taxes, to spend it wisely for the benefit of the people, and not to waste them on ridiculous functions, on people who have been suspended from work for years but not fired, etc. There were also some references to the people who conduct their business in South Africa but have their companies based in Mauritius where they pay very low tax. That is an extremely popular tax dodge amongst many in the northern suburbs and it will be interesting to see how SARS goes about challenging this and putting an end to it. Many in Sandhurst and Dainfern will be somewhat anxious.