Life and Taxes

In the last few weeks our various political parties have been putting out their manifestos. As I read them different emotions are stirred up in me. Primarily anger. The 1994 elections were a time of real hope and enthusiasm for the future. By contrast these 2009 elections leave me feeling despondent. The ANC’s manifesto sounds inspiring in its focus on the alleviation of poverty and its frequent reference to their past achievements. Yet I fear that behind the rhetoric of being there for the poor, they really are and have been a middle class party with primarily middle class concerns.

I base this on my own experience of being a tax payer (and therefore earning enough to pay tax!). Ten years ago I started to earn a salary and pay tax and every single year since I have paid less tax than the previous year. At first this seemed a good thing, I had more money to play with. However as I began to think this through I wondered how much of what the government had promised the poorest of the poor was being sacrificed to make the economy swing faster!

Let’s take the example of the child grant. Last year in the budget speech we were told that it would cost about 7 billion rands to extend the child grant to the age of 18. At the same time individual tax was cut by 7.7 billion rands. I would far rather have paid the same tax as the previous year and used the difference to extend the child grant. (For me that tax saving only amounted to about R600.00 over the year) For those people who are dependent on the child grant losing it can mean not being fed, or not being able to finish school. These are moral problems. They also have sociological consequences.

Many people complain about crime. Stopping the child grant before the age of 18 seems to me to be asking those young adults to enter into a life of crime. In the ANC’s manifesto for this year they promise to extend the grant to 18. When interviewed however, Trevor Manuel thought it still would not be possible for a few more years.
As a concerned Christian, I would rather pay more tax and know that people were having access even to the tiny R230 per month of our child grant. As Christians we are responsible for each other. We have a real responsibility to the poor, and particularly to children who are unable to fend for themselves. Pope John Paul emphasized this in his teaching on the dignity of the human person. This is one tiny way as a people where we could be making a difference to the dignity of these young people.

It's counter cultural to vote for more taxes, but I would happily pay them if I knew that they were being used to alleviate poverty.