BrettieG

Jack of all trades, Master of some..

[Khangisa (Prof. ) @Siyakhangisa]

48%.

That is the effective tax burden on someone earning R30,000 a month in South Africa. Same rate as someone earning R432,000 a month in a top European country.

The numbers sound wrong. They are not.

​​Where the 48% comes from.​​

PAYE is what people see on the payslip. It is not the whole picture.

VAT - 15% on almost everything. Every swipe. Every fill-up. Most people do not think of VAT as a tax. It is the largest single source of government revenue after income tax.

Fuel levy - built into every litre. Petrol at R26.92 inland includes roughly R3.80 in fuel levy and Road Accident Fund levy. That is a tax on getting to work.

Then there are the charges that look like fees but function like taxes. E-tolls. Municipal surcharges. Electricity tariffs with embedded levies.

Add the visible and the invisible - you get 48%.

​​The key difference with Europe.​​

In the Netherlands. In Denmark. In Germany. High taxes come with a social contract.

Free tertiary education. Universal healthcare that does not require medical aid. Childcare subsidies. Paid parental leave that covers an actual year. Robust unemployment support.

You pay 45%. And you get services back.

In South Africa you pay 48%. And then you pay again - privately.

Medical aid because public healthcare is collapsed. Security because policing is broken. Private schools because public education cannot be trusted. Solar panels or a generator because Eskom cannot guarantee power. Water tanks because the municipality cannot guarantee supply.

The middle-class earner pays twice. Once in tax. Once in escape.

​​Who actually pays.​​

There are about 8.3 million personal income taxpayers in South Africa. A relatively small slice of the population. The top earners supply most of the revenue.

Corporations optimise. The wealthy structure. Offshore trusts. Semigration. Emigration. The R30,000 earner cannot escape - it comes out before they see the money.

The base is narrow. The burden is concentrated. The services are not.

​​Why it accumulated this way.​​

No one designed this system. It grew.

Income tax funds the general budget. VAT funds the general budget. Fuel levy funds roads and the general budget. Each mechanism made sense when it was introduced. Each one expanded quietly.

Raising income tax visibly upsets people. Raising VAT is less visible - it is embedded in the price. Raising fuel levy is buried in the pump price. Municipal charges are non-negotiable.

The objective was not fairness to the middle class. It was revenue extraction with minimum political friction.

​​The uncomfortable part.​​

This is not a policy failure. It is a policy success. The system extracts efficiently. It offends quietly. And the people who carry it do not have the means to opt out.

The question is not whether 48% is too high.

It is how long the R30,000 earner can pay twice - once in tax and once in escape - before something breaks.

[Free Market Foundation @FMFSouthAfrica]

Premieres tonight at 7pm

South African businesses are taxed, regulated, monitored and forced to navigate an ever-growing compliance burden.

@Sakeliga's @RussLamberti argues that the institutions meant to support a functioning economy have instead become part of the machinery constraining it.

Tonight, he joins FMF CEO @DavidAnsara to unpack the forces behind South Africa’s economic destruction, and what businesses and civil society can do to fight back.

🔴 Watch the premiere: https://t.co/hscmK8XXer

[LorenzoCaccialupi | ItalianPatriot @LorenzoCaccia]

We planted 3,000 crosses in Washington, D.C.

Every cross carries the name of a person killed in a farm attack in South Africa.

I refuse to leave them alone.

These people deserve Freedom.

[Dominic Lee 李梓敬 @dominictsz]

In China, even small towns come fully equipped with public stadiums, gyms and sports grounds!

This is what happens when your country invests in infrastructures instead of funding wars!

[Sawyer Merritt @SawyerMerritt]

Next week, @SpaceX will be bringing online 220,000 Nvidia GB300 GPU (worth $15+ billion), with another ~$15+ billion in November, and then potentially another $15 billion in December, for a possible total of 660,000 GB300s coming online in Q4 alone.

Upwards of $50 billion of GPUs.

(below is an old pic of SpaceX's new Minihard GPU facility, which is where those 220,000 Nvidia GB300 GPUs will be coming online, the same number as the other two buildings, but in a much denser configuration, allowing for a significantly smaller overall building footprint)

[INFIL // EXFIL 🇿🇦 @InfilExfil]

The South African Government's empowering programs aren't boding well for the country.

A further 114 insolvencies have been recorded in August, taking the total to 1010 this year.

[Nico du Plessis @nduplessis]

And there it is folks, they’re finally saying the quiet part out loud. South Africa’s government does not want you to have Starlink, because they can’t disconnect you from the world when they feel like it …

https://t.co/kJYje7NkX5

[AllQuakes - EMSC @EMSC]

🔔#Earthquake (#aardbewing) M5.7 strikes 1,673 km S of Port Elizabeth (South Africa) 12 min ago. More info: https://t.co/HO9vNebgTU

[BrettieG @BrettGrant]

@Renevelation Every now and then one gets a @IfindRetards

[🇨🇳XuZhenqing徐祯卿 @XueJia24682]

✨🇨🇳Chinese middle school campus

[SizweLo @SizweLo]

Instead of glorifying club DJs and podcast hosts, China is pushing researchers and scientists as celebrities

[Trust In Trump 47🇺🇸 @Trustintrump47]

🚨🚨 El Salvador 🇸🇻 Nayib Bukele:

"40% of our prison population is already paying their debt to society."

"In exchange, they receive a shorter sentence and learn a skill."

"This program is NOT available to rapists and murderers."

"They will help us build roads, hospitals, and schools; manufacture our uniforms and furniture; grow and harvest our crops; and help clean our rivers."

Do you agree with Bukele's measures?

[BrettieG @BrettGrant]

@abelmike Baltimore-fontien.

[BrettieG @BrettGrant]

@bocasho_braaf Forget about Tax, I worry more about those three letters after your name.

[BrettieG @BrettGrant]

@jeslllll @dgtager @IfindRetards

[BrettieG @BrettGrant]

@pookiepolls If you go down to the woods today, you in for a big surprise...

[Martin van Staden @Martin_ASFL]

Again, there is no law that says we must call these places by these names. You can't go to jail for calling Port Elizabeth, Port Elizabeth.

Resist the central planning of your very reality by overpaid and underworked officials.

https://t.co/B8gfZ1hryZ

[The Real KING OF THE JUNGLE @EdwardthembaSa]

Am I lucky or what?
Crowned Eagle,Considered the most powerfull Eagle In Africa. Spotted it just outside Graskop 👌🏿👌🏿👌🏿👌🏿

[BrettieG @BrettGrant]

@Cannacollectors Hurple Porn