The 2008 Tax Statistics is a joint publication by the National Treasury and the South African Revenue Service (SARS). This publication is a first of its kind and the intention is to produce it on an annual basis.
The publication is intended to fill a void with respect to the availability of disaggregated tax revenue data. Many commentators, academics and analysts have requested tax revenue data at a more disaggregate level. It is hoped that this publication will form the basis for more in-depth analysis of tax revenue data.
The publication provides an overview of tax revenues for the period 2002/03 to 2005/06. In some instances aggregate revenues for earlier and later periods, where available, are also provided. The data is based on tax revenue collections and customs duties with the focus on three main tax instruments i.e. Personal Income Tax (PIT), Corporate Income Tax (CIT) and Value Added Tax (VAT).
This publication should provide useful information that will augment existing data sources and help to gain a better understanding of the structure of our economy, income sources and tax revenues.
It should be noted that the detailed information in chapters 2 and 3 are based on tax returns that have been assessed at the time the data was extracted early in 2008. Hence, the (lower) numbers in later years should be seen in the context of a lower rate of assessment at the time the data was extracted. Subsequent publications will report on revised data, given the additional assessed information that will become available.
Chapter 2 is an overview of assessed Personal Income Tax (PIT) revenues of registered individual taxpayers, with information on tax revenues by taxable income group, age, gender, source of income, fringe benefits, allowances and other deductions. It should be noted that employees with an annual taxable income below R60 000 are not required to register with SARS (they may, but the majority do not).
Chapter 5 provides information on the customs value of imported goods by product type as well as VAT, customs duties, and ad valorem excise duty revenues on imported goods.
Both the National Treasury and SARS hope to improve on subsequent publications and would welcome comments on the types of data that should be included in future editions. Such improvement in the quality of data, and its availability, will also enhance the tax policy process, which will be better informed as a result of such data. The publication also promotes greater transparency in the tax policy process.
See the attached annexure for a sample of the type of information contained in this publication.
An electronic version of this publication and the excel tables are available on the websites of National Treasury (www.treasury.gov.za) and the South African Revenue Service (SARS) (www.sars.gov.za).
Annexure Table 1.
Number Individuals1 Companies (CIT)1 Trusts1 PAYE1 VAT1 2002/03 3 415 432 814 894 254 593 252 589 506 098 2003/04 3 777 005 817 381 283 825 274 764 536 281 2004/05 4 115 293 933 136 318 967 302 880 578 138 2005/06 4 476 261 1 054 969 344 882 330 194 633 703 2006/07 4 764 105 1 218 905 374 411 349 077 677 153 2007/08 5 204 805 1 584 002 384 747 379 675 745 487 1. Excludes cases where status is in suspense, estate and address unknown.
Individuals: Personal Income Tax (PIT) = (Employees, sole proprietors & partners) Table 1.6.
Taxable income group 2003 [95.1% assessed] 2005 [87.
Companies (CIT) = incorporated businesses Table 1.6.
2002/03 56 573.8 2 921.6 209.6 -3 960.0 55 745.1 2003/04 60 673.0 3 040.6 99.5 -2 932.2 60 880.8 2004/05 70 571.8 4 007.4 145.4 -3 942.7 70 781.9 2005/06 87 949.6 4 487.9 123.7 -6 400.4 86 160.8 2006/07 118 205.1 7 084.2 513.5 -6 804.2 118 998.6 2007/08 139 281.0 7 595.9 203.8 -6 960.8 140 119.8 1. Includes tax credit certificates.
Taxable income groups 2003 [66.8% assessed] 2005 [47.
Type of company 2003 [66.8% assessed] 2005 [47.