Original Research
The introduction of a gambling tax in South Africa: What are the odds on the implementation thereof?
Journal of Economic and Financial Sciences | Vol 7, No 2 | a145 |
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/jef.v7i2.145
| © 2019 Milton Segal, Warren Maroun
| This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 22 December 2017 | Published: 31 July 2014
Submitted: 22 December 2017 | Published: 31 July 2014
About the author(s)
Milton Segal, School of Accountancy, University of the Witwatersrand, South AfricaWarren Maroun, School of Accountancy, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Full Text:
PDF (125KB)Abstract
The South African Revenue Service has been exploring the possibility of implementing a form of taxation on gambling winnings since the Minister of Finance’s Budget Speech in 2010. On a superficial level it seems a logical mechanism for broadening the tax base – a case of increasing the tax collected from those who can afford the luxury of gambling. There are, however, a number of unintended consequences that government does not seem to have considered. As a result, this article uses a detailed content analysis of the prior academic and professional tax literature to explore possible weaknesses/flaws of a tax on gambling winnings in South Africa. These include the administrative burden of such a tax, certain economic consequences of allowing gambling losses as a tax deduction and the possible social consequences thereof. These findings mean that the article provides a meaningful contribution by critically assessing the proposed tax with the aim of informing policy development and future quantitative studies on a tax on gambling winnings.
Keywords
South African tax system; taxation on gambling; unintended consequences; tax reforms
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