THE FINANCIAL EFFECT OF #FEESMUSTFALL ON INDIVIDUAL TAXPAYERS

Abstract

The #FeesMustFall campaign evolved from a demand for lower fees for higher education to fee-free higher education in merely two years, necessitating extensive reconsideration of the state budget. Over the same period, marginal tax rate and value added tax (VAT) increases have been felt by South African individual taxpayers. Therefore an exploratory, document analysis has been performed to determine the extent to which the #FeesMustFall campaign has been shifted to the individual taxpayer between the 2015 and 2019 years of assessment. The findings indicate that the demand for increased financial support of students led to the recent VAT and marginal tax rate increases, but that tax revenue is actually declining: the VAT increase has partially covered the increase in social grants to protect the poor from the VAT increase, and the marginal tax rate increase is resulting in reduced growth in tax revenue collection as individual taxpayers are overburdened and therefore, tax avoidance is increasing while productivity is decreasing. The present study provides taxpayers with clarity on the recent tax increases and emphasises to National Treasury that any further tax increase would be to the country’s detriment.