ARTICLE · 26 FEBRUARY 2014

Drastic Measures To Save A Desperate Situation

KPMG, South Africa

Explore more from KPMG, South Africa

"If internationally there is evidence that reducing tax rates may impact positively on growth and unemployment, and then this option should certainly not be ignored."

South AfricaTax

Yasmeen Suliman

Reduce tax rates to grow the economy and increase tax collections, says Yasmeen Suliman, director corporate tax at KPMG, who believes that a move like this could be the legacy that Pravin Gordhan leaves behind in his 2014 budget speech.

"With an economy facing languishing growth and dangerously high unemployment levels, it is unlikely that sufficient sustainable jobs will be created to reduce unemployment levels significantly", says Suliman. "A depressed economy means lower tax collections, and with a ballooning government deficit, the Treasury is under pressure to collect more revenue to fund expenditure."

Suliman labels our situation as desperate, and believes that desperate times call for drastic measures. "How about cutting tax rates to increase economic growth and tax collections?" she asks.

We operate a free-to-view policy, asking only that you register in order to read all of our content. Please login or register to view the rest of this article.

Register for freeORLog in

Related Articles

Deferral Of Payment Arrangements With SARS: What You Need To Know

South AfricaTax

SNG Grant Thornton

Debt Compromise: Can You Settle Your Tax Debt For Less?

South AfricaTax

SNG Grant Thornton

Provisional Tax Understatement Penalties: First-time Provisional Taxpayers

South AfricaTax

SNG Grant Thornton

Frozen Accounts And Fraudulent Funds: Navigating The Rights Of Banks, Customers And SARS

South AfricaTax

Registration For Diesel Refund Modernisation Opens As SARS Ushers In New Digital Era

South AfricaTax

Legal Intelligence Newsletters: sign up for the latest legal and regulatory news on your chosen topics

Read more about

Tax
- Tax Authorities

Related Comparative Guides

Comparative Guide

Tax

Comparative Guide

Tax Disputes

See more popular content from

Tax

Africa Tax In Brief

African nations are implementing sweeping tax reforms across multiple jurisdictions, from Angola's supplementary petroleum incentives and Nigeria's virtual asset taxation framework to Mauritius's digital marketplace VAT rules and the Democratic Republic of the Congo's mining royalty adjustments. These coordinated changes reflect a continent-wide effort to modernize revenue collection, expand digital taxation, and strengthen compliance mechanisms.

South AfricaTax

Africa Tax In Brief - 14 July 2026

This comprehensive update covers significant tax and regulatory developments across 30 African jurisdictions during mid-2026, including Angola's new oil block incentives and unified Personal Income Tax Code, Botswana's major tax rate increases and transfer pricing regulations, Kenya's Finance Act 2026 with mortgage interest relief expansion, Nigeria's implementation of the unified Taxpayer Identification system and presumptive tax regime, and Rwanda's new transfer pricing rules framework. The bulletin exami

Africa Tax In Brief

According to the OECD's Revenue Statistics in Africa 2025 report released in December 2025, tax revenues as a percentage of GDP have increased in 24 countries...

Extending Boundaries: Adjustments To South African Exchange Control Limits And Powers

The Financial Surveillance Department of the South African Reserve Bank (“FinSurv”) recently published a suite of draft exchange control circulars for comment, giving effect to the Minister of Finance’s 2026 Budget Speech announcements...

South AfricaTax

Africa Tax In Brief

This comprehensive briefing covers recent tax law changes, regulatory updates, and compliance requirements across multiple African jurisdictions including Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, and many others. The updates span corporate tax reforms, VAT amendments, withholding tax changes, and new administrative procedures affecting businesses operating throughout the continent.

Tax Landscape Mining

South Africa's mining sector operates in a complex tax, regulatory and ESG environment requiring careful management of specialist income tax rules, mineral royalties, VAT, customs obligations...

South AfricaTax

SNG Grant Thornton

Frozen Accounts And Fraudulent Funds: Navigating The Rights Of Banks, Customers And SARS

A South African High Court has ruled on the lawfulness of account freezing by banks based on fraud suspicions and affirmed SARS's authority to issue third-party notices under section 179 of the Tax Administration Act. The case arose after a close corporation fraudulently claimed a VAT refund of R3.28 million, transferred R900,000 to an individual's account, prompting the bank to freeze the account and SARS to pursue recovery through a third-party notice.

South AfricaTax

Section 42 Asset-For-Share Transactions: The Unsuspected Dangers When Transferring Immovable Property

Section 42 of the Income Tax Act, Act 58 of 1962 (herein the "ITA"), allows for the tax implications, normally associated with a disposal of assets...

South AfricaTax

Tax Law Tightens For SA Trusts With Offshore Beneficiaries

South Africa's recent amendment to section 25B of the Income Tax Act introduces a material change in the taxation of income distributed by resident trusts to non-resident beneficiaries.

South AfricaTax

Beach Weather | Legal Marketing

The Diesel Refund Scheme: Wet And Dry Contracts, Joint Ventures And New Ways Of Mining In South Africa

South Africa's diesel refund scheme has long provided fiscal relief to mining operations, but its legislative framework struggles to accommodate modern contractual arrangements like wet contracts and joint ventures. Recent Supreme Court of Appeal judgments and 2022 amendments are reshaping how mining companies can access these vital refunds, though significant gaps remain between commercial reality and legal requirements.

South AfricaTax