{"id":379289,"date":"2020-03-05T10:16:10","date_gmt":"2020-03-05T08:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=379289"},"modified":"2020-03-05T10:16:10","modified_gmt":"2020-03-05T08:16:10","slug":"unions-push-for-higher-taxes-on-wealthy-south-africans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/379289\/unions-push-for-higher-taxes-on-wealthy-south-africans\/","title":{"rendered":"Unions push for higher taxes on wealthy South Africans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Trade federation Cosatu has called for the introduction of more wealth taxes as a means of reducing inequality across South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>In a 10-page document &#8211; which also outlines proposals for the use of public pensions to assist Eskom &#8211; the federation said that the country&#8217;s tax regime must be made more progressive and additional sources of revenue generated.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;This must include ensuring the rich pay their fair share, the burden be shifted away from the increasing levels of taxation upon workers and the redistribution of wealth,&#8221; it said.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to clamping down on high profile tax evasion cases and reducing tax loopholes, Cosatu said that the wealthy should pay increases for the following taxes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Inheritance;<\/li>\n<li>Estate;<\/li>\n<li>Land;<\/li>\n<li>Personal income;<\/li>\n<li>Company;<\/li>\n<li>Customs duties;<\/li>\n<li>Dividends;<\/li>\n<li>VAT on luxury goods.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Cosatu said that government should also provide tax relief for the poor by increasing the allocation of free electricity and water for indigent households.<\/p>\n<p>The federation said that this should be done by introducing a progressive sliding water and electricity tariffs based upon property value and excessive consumption.<\/p>\n<p>To aid with revenue collection, Cosatu said that additional interventions are also needed at the South African Revenue Services (SARS).<\/p>\n<p>It said that these interventions should include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Massive investment in additional resources and personnel for SARS Customs enforcement to raise the current 5% inspection rate to 100% for all imports entering ports and borders;<\/li>\n<li>Recapacitating specialised units and filling critical vacancies;<\/li>\n<li>Specialised units and plans to tackle illicit goods, especially tobacco and clothing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You can read the full proposal document below:<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 12px auto 6px auto; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none; display: block;\"><a style=\"text-decoration: underline;\" title=\"View Cosatu Economic Intervention Proposals on Scribd\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scribd.com\/document\/450218949\/Cosatu-Economic-Intervention-Proposals#from_embed\">Cosatu Economic Intervention Proposals<\/a> by <a style=\"text-decoration: underline;\" title=\"View BusinessTech's profile on Scribd\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scribd.com\/user\/413742166\/BusinessTech#from_embed\">BusinessTech<\/a> on Scribd<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"doc_79290\" class=\"scribd_iframe_embed\" title=\"Cosatu Economic Intervention Proposals\" src=\"https:\/\/www.scribd.com\/embeds\/450218949\/content?start_page=1&amp;view_mode=scroll&amp;access_key=key-piAm0LNEviHK8zdORs8A&amp;show_recommendations=true\" width=\"640\" height=\"853\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" data-auto-height=\"false\" data-aspect-ratio=\"0.7080062794348508\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/379071\/fresh-calls-for-a-petrol-price-cap-in-south-africa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fresh calls for a petrol price cap in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trade federation Cosatu has called for the introduction of more wealth taxes as a means of reducing inequality across South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":295732,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-379289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379289"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":379303,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379289\/revisions\/379303"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}