CAPE TWON: The National Treasury and the South African Revenue Service have published an overview of tax revenue collections and tax return information for the 2013 to 2016 tax years. The data showed that revenue from personal income tax (PIT), as a percentage of total tax revenue, increased from 29.6% in 2007/08 to 37.2% in 2016/17 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.8%, and a proportion of 8.4% of GDP over this period.
Tax revenue collected amounted to R1.144 trillion, growing year on year by R74.1 billion (6.9%) mainly supported by PIT which grew by R36.6 billion (9.4%), SARS said.
“This robust performance allowed government to offer large scale tax relief to all South Africans. This is despite the fact that the minimum tax thresholds for taxpayers below the age of 65 has increased from R40,000 in the 2007 tax year, to R73,650 in the 2016 tax year.
“Furthermore, for those who are 65 74 years, the minimum tax threshold increased from R65,000 to R114,800, and those who are 75 years and older the threshold increased from R104,261 in the 2012 tax year, when it was introduced, to R128,500, the revenue service said.
Despite tough economic conditions in which GDP increased from 0.5% to 0.7%, the Tax to GDP ratio stabilised at 26.0% from 2015/16, slightly below the peak of 26.4% achieved in 2007/08.
