Warren Buffett and Jacko Maree might be willing to pay more in taxes but tax specialists do not expect a super wealth tax to be announced in next month's budget.
The Treasury has indicated that it will target high net-worth individuals more aggressively to bring more of them into the tax net, but Bernadette Abbot, of Deloitte, said yesterday it was a mystery how SARS had discovered that there were 9300 high net-worth individuals. South Africa has only 5.7million personal income tax payers.
She said that the high net-worth individuals she has dealt with have not displayed an intention to "dodge taxes".
"Where they have found 9300 high net-worth individuals is a mystery to me, as well as the amount used [R7-million]."
She said a bigger concern was how much money was being syphoned offshore.
Wealth profiling has been used over the past decade in South Africa, and Billy Joubert, a director at Deloitte, points out that tax rates are important when it comes to competing for skills. Too high a rate will chase skills away.
None of the tax specialists expects the marginal rate of 40% to be increased or a super wealth tax to be implemented.
The Treasury announced last week that South Africa has 9300 high net-worth individuals earning more than R7-million annually or having assets worth more than R75-million.
But SARS records reflect only 360 individuals in this category. The loss to the fiscus is estimated to be R48-billion. - I-Net Bridge