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Budget 2017: the highs and lows for investors

02 March 2017

As with last year’s Budget speech, Minister Gordhan showed just how many avenues are in fact available to him for increasing tax revenue. This year the bulk of the additional R28 billion, which he stated in the MTBPS he would he need to raise in 2017/18, could – without deeper investigation - be called ‘wealth taxes’. Addressing inequality among South Africans appears to be top of the minister’s agenda.

The 2017 investment landscape

28 February 2017

Last year most global equity markets reported single digit returns. The shining light however, was the US equity market where the S&P500 reported a positive return of 12%. In contrast, the FTSE 100 reported a decline of 0.2% in dollar terms, while both the German Dax 30 and French Cac 40 made gains of 3.3% and 5.7% respectively.

Beyond the budget

28 February 2017

By now everyone has had some time to digest the Budget Speech, and specifically how the R28 billion increase in the tax burden that largely falls on individuals will impact us. The new top marginal tax bracket of 45% only applies to 103 000 taxpayers, who will on average pay R3 500 per month more in income tax. There are 7.4 million registered individual taxpayers in South Africa, but 6.5 million fall below the threshold income and don’t pay income tax.