It is now widely expected that sometime in the next year or so Moody’s will downgrade South Africa’s debt to junk status. Many see this as the beginning of t...

“There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in mise...

“Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future” (Niels Bohr, theoretical physicist and Nobel Prize winner) After shrinking sharply in the...

“Our results indicate that the Big Mac Index is surprisingly accurate in tracking exchange rates over the long-term, which is consistent with previous PPP re...

“Tax Freedom Day is calculated by dividing general government revenue by GDP at market prices, then multiplying the result by the number of days in a year, a...

“I approach every problem with optimism” (Nelson Mandela) The mood of optimism that pervaded a year ago is rapidly fading – the Business Confidence Index is ...

The following proposed tax changes were announced Income tax rates are left unchanged. The primary rebate was marginally increased but the overall effect of ...

“People who complain about taxes can be divided into two classes: men and women” (Anon) How long will you work for the taxman today? Input your salary into t...

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit ...

On 20th February the Minister of Finance, Tito Mboweni, will make his budget speech. Traditionally, the Minister asks the public what they would like to see ...

“Prediction is very difficult, especially if it is about the future” (Nils Bohr – Nobel Laureate) Normally the market and economic commentators react favoura...

“The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails” (William Arthur Ward) As we wind down from a chall...

The new Minister of Finance didn’t have much time to prepare for the Medium Term Budget Speech (MTBS) but he carried it off well. The MTBS is a three year ou...

Today getting an SME going is incredibly difficult as they face enormous red tape (FICA, getting loans, VAT registration and so on) and have difficulty getti...

It has become a global phenomenon measuring Tax Freedom Day, the day up to which you work to pay your taxes – only after Tax Freedom Day do you start working...