{"id":823862,"date":"2025-05-13T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=823862"},"modified":"2025-05-13T10:04:38","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T08:04:38","slug":"tax-boycotts-in-south-africa-already-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/823862\/tax-boycotts-in-south-africa-already-here\/","title":{"rendered":"Tax boycotts in South Africa already here"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Efficient Group chief economist Dawie Roodt said there is widespread unhappiness and resistance to paying taxes in South Africa, and tax boycotts are already underway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Roodt made these comments during a discussion about land reform and the government\u2019s duties in South Africa on the Praag podcast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He stated that the new Expropriation Act, which grants the state the power to seize people\u2019s property without compensation, is an example of government overreach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe term expropriation is just another term for theft. This is what the state does when it takes people\u2019s property,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He explained that the state\u2019s primary role is to protect its citizens and their property, ensuring that they are always safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When the state fails to perform this duty, it breaches its social contract with its citizens, which can lead to a decline in tax payments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhen the state starts threatening to steal my property, I no longer have a duty to pay taxes to the government,\u201d he argued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The South African government is also known for wasting taxpayers\u2019 money through corruption, mismanagement, and a bloated and inefficient workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These issues have led many South Africans to resent paying taxes, as they do not see their money being spent wisely. Consequently, tax boycotts have begun to take place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said a good example of a tax boycott is the failed e-toll system, where South Africans refused to pay for the system, which was seen as corrupt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Roodt, who is also a wealth manager, said when South Africans visit him to discuss their financial affairs, they have two requests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>They want to move their money offshore.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>They don\u2019t want to pay tax.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>He said this is in stark contrast to countries like Australia and New Zealand, where most citizens are proud to pay tax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThey are not averse to paying taxes because they know their money is spent efficiently. However, in South Africa, the money is wasted,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Roodt added that the tax system in South Africa is flawed and should be reviewed to serve the country and its people better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said people pay too much tax, and the resistance to this tax burden is growing, leading to many forms of tax boycotts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He cautioned against a full tax revolt, where people would stop paying taxes altogether, as it is nearly impossible to convince them to start paying taxes again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Efficient Group chief economist Dawie Roodt said there is widespread unhappiness and resistance to paying taxes in South Africa, and tax boycotts are already underway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":816459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[1459,21717,22523],"class_list":["post-823862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-dawie-roodt","tag-expropriation-act","tag-tax-boycott"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823862","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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=823862"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":823863,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823862\/revisions\/823863"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/816459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=823862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=823862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=823862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}