Tax protest announced against government’s threefold increase

7 September 2021

The Solidarity Research Institute today presented a report that shows that the burden on taxpayers could increase as much as threefold if the White Paper on the National Health Insurance (NHI) is accepted and the Green Paper on social security is implemented after being reviewed.

Solidarity’s Executive Council made the decision that a comprehensive, legal tax protest may be instituted. As part of the protest, the plan is to test the NHI proposal in court. If the government should continue with its intention to republish the Green Paper on social security, Solidarity would challenge that in court as well.

According to the report, the taxes paid by South Africans are incredibly high in world terms, without the government fulfilling its side of the traditional contract. The report revealed that the tax to GDP ratio is the second highest in the world after Sweden. Further impact studies show that the implementation of the NHI will result in such an increase in taxes that the tax burden of the majority of taxpayers could increase threefold.

“The White Paper (and Green Paper) are both irrational and unaffordable. The government did not make any calculations about the actual impact of the proposals. Solidarity is the only organisation that has done proper impact studies and our findings show that the government's proposals are completely outrageous,” said Solidarity Chief Executive Dr Dirk Hermann.

The tax protest campaign will focus on litigation. Solidarity is preparing for the mother of all tax court cases to stop the NHI White Paper and later the Green Paper. Part of the campaign will also include the prosecution of looters.

Solidarity has also decided to appoint a task team in order to develop proposals to help people, through creative methods, to pay less tax.

“A small percentage of citizens carry a massive tax burden, but get virtually nothing in return for it. The ANC government is doing everything in its power to enact more legislation that would enable them to collect more taxes and impoverish hard-working South Africans. This leaves us with no choice but to resort to a legal protest where we explore all possibilities in order to pay as little tax to the government as possible.

"It is well known that money from the state coffers end up in the pockets of cadres and that looters are not brought to book. That is exactly why we continue with litigation to stop the state and its immoral plans in their tracks. We as taxpayers have power. We must stand together and remind politicians that they are supposed to work for us, the taxpayers, and not the other way around,” Hermann concluded.

Read the report here.

Issued by Connie Mulder, Head: Solidarity Research Institute, 7 September 2021