SA-TIED Seminar Series: Exploring options to deepen and broaden the personal income tax base in South Africa

Join us for a session of the SA-TIED Seminar Series focusing on the topic of personal income tax reform. Led by Gemma Wright, Katrin Gasior, and Winile Ngobeni this seminar will address their Working Paper titled "Exploring options to deepen and broaden the personal income tax base in South Africa." During this session they will present their findings on how various tax reforms can enhance revenue generation while maintaining progressivity and mitigating negative impacts on taxpayers.

Overview

Effective tax systems are crucial for sustainable economic development, and South Africa's personal income tax (PIT) system is no exception. This seminar will explore options for deepening and broadening the PIT base, using detailed microsimulation models to assess the impacts of proposed reforms. By examining both the upper and lower ends of the income distribution, the study provides insights into how these reforms can achieve higher revenues without compromising the tax system's progressivity.

Key discussion points

• Revenue augmentation: Insights into how expanding the top tax band and lowering the minimum tax threshold can significantly increase tax revenues without raising the maximum tax rate in the top band.
• Policy recommendations: Proposed strategies for incorporating additional tax-registered individuals into the tax net, ensuring a gradual transition into the tax system for lower-income groups.
• Impacts on progressivity: Analysis of the effects of tax reforms on measures of progressivity, ensuring that any changes to the tax schedule do not disproportionately affect low-income earners.
• Behavioural responses: Understanding the potential behavioural responses to the tax reforms, both at the intensive and extensive margins, and their implications for revenue and compliance costs.

This seminar is ideal for policymakers, researchers, practitioners, academics, and anyone interested in tax policy and economic development on both a national and international scale.