Many taxpayers will be thankful that finance minister Tito Mboweni’s budget speech for the 2021/2 tax year offers real relief for people in most income tax brackets rather than the painful tax increases that many of us expected. Yet, his budget speech also sets the stage for what is likely to be a slow and difficult recovery from the pandemic over the next three years.
According to the National Treasury’s forecasts, the SA economy is expected to rebound by 3.3% this year, after a 7.2% contraction in 2020. As such, we have a long road ahead of us before GDP grows back to its pre-pandemic size. While the minister’s commitment to lowering barriers to entry, raising productivity and lowering the cost of doing business is laudable,…