Thanks Andrew. Useful numbers, and I’m really happy you highlighted that this is just personal income tax. Some guys get slightly carried away and forget that VAT is actually a regressive tax and casts a wide net etc.

I’m still hearing people say “maybe we should keep an open mind” to the NGP and salary caps specifically. It’s not that I don’t like them, it’s that they are absolutely flawed and won’t work. More, it’s that Patel showed his lack of ability to consider the economy as something more than an idealogy. He lost all credibility.

The top tax bracket (40% marginal) starts at R552,000. +-227,000 people declare incomes that cause them to hit this bracket.

These +-227,000 (around 0.5% of SA’s population) people pay **46.4%** of the total personal income taxes paid in SA. (Note that “personal” income taxes, i.e. not corporate nor VAT/etc.)

Thanks Linda. Fixed the gremlins.

@Anonymous – Nothing really stopping any of us from doing that at the moment, but I agree it’s very attractive.

@Zing – exactly!

Of course Mr Patel has thought this through. When he gets to earn his R550k limit, so will Mrs Patel, and Mr Patel Junior, and the Patel residence gardener, with whom they will have an exclusive contract.
That makes up for the R2m that he is earning atm. And he’ll still be able to afford the R800k luxury sedan, and the R5m mansion, and thereby contribute healthily to the 5% growth of the economy . . .

Oh, wait – you’ve already covered that under cheating. . .

I won’t be doing any of that of course!

It looks like your last sentence in the “Incentive to cheat” paragraph got cut off though?