The South African Revenue Service set out initiatives aimed at giving taxpayers a better idea of how revenue is earned and spent, and the government a better idea of who earns what and where they spend their money.
According to the latest set of stats, the average tax rate of individual taxpayers was 20.2%. While 10% of individuals earned 38.5% of total taxable income, they were liable for 58.17% of personal income tax. The personal income tax register had grown from 13.7 million people in March 2012 to 15.4 million by March last year after it became compulsory for all employees to be registered. Only about 6 million of them were liable to submit tax returns as the rest fell below the submissions threshold.