Johannesburg – The principal of Wordsworth High School in Benoni is due to appear at a disciplinary hearing in two weeks, the Gauteng education department said on Wednesday.

Annelize Horn faces a charge of misconduct for allegedly making racial remarks, department spokesperson Phumla Sekhonyane said in a statement.

In November, eNCA reported Horn allegedly called black girls dirty during school assembly and sent a note to parents complaining they only washed their hair once a month. Horn was suspended after the allegation emerged.

SAPA

Johannesburg – The personal income tax relief outlined in Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s budget speech is not enough to cover rising inflation, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said on Wednesday.
Accountant Christo Paxton said in a statement that while the personal income tax relief of R9.3bn was welcome, the difference it would make to taxpayers’ pockets was limited.
About 40% of the tax relief went to South Africans earning below R250 000 a year.
“When comparing an individual’s tax liability who earns about R200 000 per year, the individual will have an additional R106 extra in their pockets every month.
“This barely covers the ever-rising cost of fuel and consumables.”
A person earning around R700 000 annually would have an extra R370 in their pockets each month.
“This is not quite enough to compensate us for the effects of inflation,” Paxton said.
Gordhan’s budget increased the tax-free, lump-sum amount paid out of retirement funds from R315 000 to R500 000, in favour of lower income members who did not benefit from deductible contributions.
PwC tax consultant Avisha Gajadhar said this was a generous increase of 58.7%.
“However, the top bracket did not increase substantially in comparison – increasing from R945 000 to R1 015 000.”
This amounted to a mere 19.6% increase.
“This is clearly in line with the government’s continued efforts to encourage individuals to save for retirement, particularly those in the lower income brackets,” Gajadhar said.

SAPA

Cape Town – The budget tabled in Parliament was in typical Gordhan style.

Little surprises, predictable and rather dull.

Perhaps the best news and surprise was that Gordhan still found room, despite the tight fiscal conditions, for personal income tax relief of R9.25bn for individual tax payers.

Nothing realised of some form of wealth tax for the rich.
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Johannesburg – The sin tax increase for tobacco products was not enough to put the youth off smoking, the National Council Against Smoking said on Wednesday.
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s budget earlier increased the excise duties on a pack of 20 cigarettes by 68 cents, from R10.90 to R11.60.
“This modest hike means that the treasury has once again spurned the opportunity to reduce smoking amongst youth, save lives, and generate revenue,” the council’s executive director Yussuf Saloojee said in a statement.
According to the council, had the increase been R1.20 per pack almost 620 million fewer cigarettes would have been smoked in the next year. This would have generated government revenues of around R500m, he said.
“The treasury’s priorities favour business above health, based on the naive assumption that containing cigarette excise tax will contain the illicit trade in cigarettes,” Saloojee said.
The Tobacco Institute of SA (Tisa) said it acknowledged the importance of excise duties on tobacco as an extremely valuable source of income for the fiscus.
Chief executive Francois van der Merwe said in a statement: “We are grateful to treasury for maintaining the 52% tax incidence on tobacco products.”
He said that as tobacco products became more expensive, illicit tobacco operators used the opportunity to avoid paying taxes, which in turn allowed them to sell their illegal products more cheaply.
“An unlevel playing field is created with the legal tobacco sector losing market share and government losing revenue. Only the illicit operators flourish.”
The new excise duties for other types of tobacco products included a 9% increase per 25g of pipe tobacco, R5.11 per 23g of cigars and 87c per 50g of roll-your-own tobacco.

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Johannesburg – Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s announcement of tax relief is misleading, trade union Solidarity said on Wednesday.
“As the case was last year, taxpayers will have to cede a larger portion of their income to income tax this year,” the union’s researcher Piet le Roux said in a statement.
“Any taxpayer receiving a salary increase in 2014 in accordance with CPI [consumer price index] inflation, will actually have to forfeit a larger portion of his taxable income to personal income tax than in the 2013/2014 tax year.”
Earlier, Gordhan presented his budget to the National Assembly and announced income tax relief of R9.3bn.
Le Roux said only those who received an increase less than 5.4% this year would cede a smaller part of their taxable income.
For the 2014/15 tax year, the tax threshold and all income tax brackets had been increased by approximately 5.4%. This was lower than the SA Reserve Bank’s expected increase in the CPI of 6.3% for this year.
“These adjustments will in fact result in a heavier tax burden, not tax relief,” he said.

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Cape Town – Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan played it safe with a pre-election budget of R1.25 trillion on Wednesday, giving the poor increases in social grants and mainly middle class households R9.3bn in tax relief.
Despite lacklustre growth, Gordhan brought good news in announcing the deficit was expected to come in at four percent in 2013/14 – lower than forecast – and hold steady in 2014/15, then dip below three percent by 2016/17.
And he defended President Jacob Zuma’s administration’s record by pointing out that it had to weather “a once-in-70-year economic earthquake” when it took office five years ago but said it had steered the country from recession to recovery.
He urged South Africans to work together to radically change the economy.
“The new economic order we seek cannot just be a pact among elites, a coalition among stakeholders with vested interests. Nor can it be built on populist slogans or unrealistic promises.
“We have to work together to radically change our economy. This means working with our major businesses so that they sparkle across the globe.”
It meant working with black entrepreneurs to grow their companies across South Africa, and beyond, working with small and large businesses to build value-chain linkages that supported dynamic, export-oriented, competitive enterprises.
“It means bringing those who are marginalised into the mainstream of opportunity and activity. It means a better standard of living for all.
“It is time for a bold vision of our future, as set out in the National Development Plan (NDP). It is time for action and implementation. It is time to move South Africa forward to the next stage of our historic journey to more rapid growth, jobs and development – time to leave behind poverty, joblessness and inequality.”
Gordhan said his budget was based on the NDP and the next administration would have a solid platform for implementing it.
“The NDP reflects the priorities underpinning this budget, and prepares the ground for the next phase of our economic and social transformation.”
Government’s commitment to the NDP meant striving for 5% growth, reducing poverty, speeding up infrastructure investment, phasing in the National Health Insurance and professionalising the public service.
The long-awaited white paper on the NHI and Treasury’s financing paper for the programme would be tabled “shortly”, and should become public before the May 7 elections, he said.
He warned, however, that implementing the plan would require financial discipline, better productivity and a firm commitment to curbing waste.
Gordhan said that while the global economic outlook remained unsteady, South Africa’s economy had continued to grow, but more slowly than projected a year ago.
“We expect growth of 2.7% this year. A weaker exchange rate is a risk to the inflation outlook, but it supports exporters.”
Among other things, the budget allocated R6.5bn over three years to support small and medium enterprises.
The turnover tax regime would be amended to further reduce the tax burden on micro-enterprises.
Consideration was being given to replacing the graduated tax structure for small business corporations with a refundable tax compliance credit.
Gordhan said progress was being made in overcoming infrastructure backlogs and investing for more inclusive growth and development.
Public infrastructure investment would amount to R847bn over the next three years.
Spending on social infrastructure, which included health, education and community facilities, would increase from R30bn in 2012/13 to R43bn in 2016/17. Priority would be given to programmes to eradicate school infrastructure backlogs and to refurbish clinics and hospitals.
In 2014/15, a total of R40bn in infrastructure grants would be transferred to local governments for their water, sanitation, energy and environmental functions.
Consumer price inflation (CPI) was expected to come in at 5.7% for 2013, 6.2% this year, 5.9% next year, and 5.5% in 2016.
Gordhan said the number of people eligible for social grants was due to reach 16.5 million by 2016/17.
The old age and disability grants would increase in April, from R1 270 a month to R1 350; the foster care grant would increase from R800 to R830; and, the child support grant would increase, from R300 to R310 a month in April, and to R320 in October.
Increases in excise duties on alcoholic beverages and tobacco would add nine cents to the price of a 340ml can of beer and 68 cents to a packet of 20 cigarettes. Whisky would cost R4.80 a bottle more. These increases took effect immediately.
The general fuel levy would increase by 12 cents a litre on April 2, and the Road Accident Fund levy would increase by eight cents a litre.
Consolidated revenue for 2014/15 was expected to be R1.1trn and spending R1.25trn.
“We have achieved much over the past five years, in a very difficult post-recession climate. But there is more to do ahead, more to build, more to put right, more to learn, more to implement. We can only do this together,” Gordhan said.
SAPA