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PwC Survey Sheds Light On South Africa's Real Company Tax Burden,
by Robert Lee, Tax-News.com, London
Monday, February 11, 2008
A study of taxes paid to the South African government by companies has found
that, like many other jurisdictions, corporate tax is only a relatively small
part of the total tax contribution of the corporate sector to the fiscus.
The recently-released report by accounting and audit firm PricewaterhouseCoopers
(PwC) concluded that any inquiry into the amount of tax paid by the corporate
sector must look beyond corporate income tax and take account of all business-related
taxes borne and collected.
It is thought that the PwC study is the first of its type undertaken in South
Africa, and PwC says that the results will be of great interest to stakeholders
such as National Treasury, SARS, the corporate sector, institutional investors,
trade unions and others.
“The PwC study has corroborated what similar PwC studies of foreign countries
have shown,” explained Charles de Wet, the PwC director responsible for
the Total Tax Contribution project, which was based on research carried out
at the end of 2007.
“The factual data arising from the survey is being put into the public
domain by PwC to facilitate an informed debate on the present and future shape
of South Africa’s tax system as it affects large companies,” he
added.
Key survey findings included that:
- In South Africa, the total number of taxes levied (and either borne by the
companies or collected by them) is currently 21, after the abolition of Regional
Services Council levies and Retirement Funds tax. Prior to 31 March 2007, this
number was 23, which included 21 national taxes and two local taxes. By way
of comparison, similar studies in the United Kingdom identified only 22 business
taxes, while 56 taxes were identified in a study in Australia and 31 in the
Netherlands.
- The survey results corroborate the importance of large South African companies
to government finances by way of taxes borne and collected. The 50 companies
surveyed bore in aggregate R50.4 billion (USD6.5 billion) in taxes and collected
a further R52 billion on behalf of government (national and local) in 2007.
This represented 10.1% of government receipts in respect of taxes borne. In
addition, 27.3% of the total corporate tax in 2007 and 31.9% of Secondary Tax
on Companies (STC) was paid by these 50 companies.
- On average, the companies surveyed reported paying 8.7 different business-related
taxes.
- An important issue highlighted by the PwC study was the importance to SARS
(and to the corporate sector) of taxes collected by companies, though not borne
by them, and paid over to SARS. These include PAYE, VAT and excise duties. On
average, the companies surveyed reported collecting 3.2 different taxes and paying
them over to SARS.
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