By Sukuoluhle Ndlovu
Youths have urged Southern African countries to introduce wealth tax as a move to address the economic inequality and developmental deficits affecting them in the region.
This was raised at the commemorations of the Day of the African Child organised by the Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (ZIMCODD) through a regional youth debate tournament.
The tournament creates a platform for regional youth to network, debate on different but pertinent regional social, economic and political issues.
Wealth tax will raise revenue which SADC countries have failed to implement to design and administer viable and politically palatable wealth taxes.
In a statement, ZIMCODD said people must be mandated to declare their assets and liabilities.
“The governments must prepare for comprehensive wealth taxes with mandatory declarations of assets and liabilities as in South Africa. There is need to improve transparency of wealth by introducing robust automatic exchange of information systems with other tax authorities, through a reformed OECD Gloval Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes or otherwise, as well as updated registers of beneficial ownership which are publicly available, free of charge and verified.
“In order to reduce the risk of capital flight, consider a regional approach to wealth taxes, introducing standardized taxes on holding wealth at a continental or trade bloc level with a view to negotiating a global tax on held wealth in the long term. There is also a need to establish a specific unit in the tax authority to deal with taxing the wealthy in the absence of a comprehensive tax on holding wealth, countries should tax the holding, transfer and appreciation of wealth through different taxes (such as property, inheritance and capital gains taxes), to make then harder to avoid. For the whistleblowers, there is need for whistle blowing protection for those who expose tax avoidance schemes by the ultra. Wealthy.”
One youth in Masvingo, Andile Mlotshwa said if implemented wealth tax will come in handy.
“The wealth tax is the way to go as this will also help in raising revenue in the country, but then the major problem is implementation, will our government have funds to track down everyone’s wealth so as to tax in accordance to ones wealth. Taxing us the same is not fair, some of us with the little salaries we receive and after being taxed, we take nothing home,” she said.
