Original Research

A macroeconomic approach to estimating effective tax rates in South Africa

HA Amusa
South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences | Vol 7, No 1 | a1432 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v7i1.1432 | © 2004 HA Amusa | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 09 July 2004 | Published: 23 July 2004

About the author(s)

HA Amusa, University of PRetoria

Full Text:

PDF (117KB)

Abstract

Using data contained in South Africa's national accounts and revenue statistics, this paper constructs time-series of effective tax rates for consumption, capital income, and labour income. The macroeconomic approach allows for a detailed breakdown of tax revenue accruing to general government and the corresponding aggregate tax bases. The methodology used also yields effective rate estimates that can be considered as being consistent with tax distortions faced by a representative economic agent within a general equilibrium framework. Correlation analysis reveals that savings (as a percentage of GDP) is negatively correlated with both capital income and labour income tax rates. Investment (as a percentage of GDP) is positively correlated with the capital income tax rate, an outcome suggestive of the direct relationship between volatile capital inflows into South Africa and capital tax revenue

Keywords

No related keywords in the metadata.

Metrics

Total abstract views: 3062
Total article views: 2309

 

Crossref Citations

1. CORPORATE TAX RATES IN THE SADC REGION: DETERMINANTS AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS
ZURIKA ROBINSON
The South African Journal of Economics  vol: 73  issue: 4  first page: 722  year: 2005  
doi: 10.1111/j.1813-6982.2005.00049.x