INTRODUCTION : This dissertation is a study on whether implementing a wealth tax in South Africa is a feasible idea. Those who have suggested this want this tax to be levied on the white race because they benefited more from apartheid. RESEARCH QUESTION : My research question is whether implementing a wealth tax will be beneficial or detrimental to South Africa. The question also includes whether a temporary wealth tax, based on race, would assist in narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor and redressing the injustices (whether perceived or real) that resulted from the apartheid system. What must also be addressed is if an indefinite wealth tax, based on an individual’s net wealth as applied in other countries, would be beneficial or detrimental if applied in South Africa. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY : I use a comparative study between countries that have implemented the tax, be they developed or undeveloped, as well as a country that implemented it and then abolished it, in order to establish how it failed. I compare the histories, taxation systems, constitutions, and wealth taxes (if already applied) to reach a conclusion in my analysis of what its potential effect will be if applied in South Africa. Primary, secondary and tertiary sources are utilised as part of my research to answer my research question. CONCLUSION : My concluding chapter gives an indication of whether or not I perceive this tax to be beneficial to South Africa. Copyright / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Mercantile Law / unrestricted

Depuis son institution en 1989, et après une première suppression de deux ans, l'Impôt de Solidarité sur la Fortune suscite de nombreuses interrogations. De ces interrogations découle un débat récurrent et de plus en plus présent au sein de la classe politique française : faut-il conserver une telle imposition dans le système fiscal français ? Qualifié d'Impôt sur les Grandes Fortunes lors de sa première apparition, celui-ci doit son maintien à des considérations tant idéologiques qu'économiques, de par la garantie par sa présence d'une certaine justice sociale et fiscale, et de la manne financière directe qu'il apporte à l'Etat. Aussi, il doit sa survie à sa capacité à faire plus contribuer les plus riches, ce qui le rend populaire auprès d'un grand nombre d'électeurs. A l'opposé de ces considérations, cet impôt regroupe bon nombre de détracteurs, arguant principalement du fait que sa présence suscite des pertes colossales pour l'économie du pays, conséquemment à sa faculté à rebuter les grandes fortunes, aussi bien françaises qu'étrangères, avec toutes les répercussions qui en découlent. Il sera fait dans cette thèse la balance entre ces argumentations pour savoir si oui ou non l'ISF est toujours légitime en France. / Since his institution in 1989, and after a first abolition of two years, the French wealth tax arouses numerous questioning. Of these questioning ensues a recurring and more and more present debate within the French political class: is it necessary to keep such taxation in the French fiscal system? Qualified as wealth tax during its first appearance, this one owes his preservation to considerations so ideological as economic, due to the guarantee by its presence of a certain social and fiscal justice, and a direct financial basket which it brings to the State. So, the French wealth tax owes his survival to his capacity to make more contribute the richest, fact that makes it popular among the voters. Contrary to these considerations, this tax includes a lot of detractors, putting forward mainly because of colossal losses for the economy of the country, as a result of its power to pall the big fortunes, so French as foreign, with all the repercussions which ensue from it. The balance between these argumentations will be made in this thesis to know if yes or not the French Wealth tax is still justifiable in France.

<p>In this paper I study how the repeal of the Swedish wealth tax (1 of January 2007) has affected people´s labour supply behaviour. This particular issue is relevant because it may help us understand some of the effects of the earnings tax changes that have taken place in Sweden. Accoring to standard economic theory a repealed wealth tax is similar to an income effect for the persons who previously paid the tax. That means that they theoretically will want to consume more leisure, that is decrease their labour supply. The method I am using to test this hypothesis is a difference-in-difference approach where the treatment group consists of persons who previously paid the tax and the control group of comparable persons who did not pay the tax. The data I am using is taken from a Swedish database called LINDA, compiled by the Swedish Central Agency for Statistics (SCB). My main result in this paper is that the repealed wealth tax does not seem to have had any influnece on the labour supply behavior of the persons who previously paid the tax.</p>

O presente trabalho visa analisar por que até hoje o Imposto sobre Grandes Fortunas não foi implementado no Brasil. Para a consecução desse objetivo, o estudo apresenta a situação da desigualdade no mundo e no país, através de apontamentos realizados pelo economista Thomas Piketty em sua obra “O Capital no Século XXI”, bem como de dados contidos em relatórios da distribuição da riqueza mundial; demarca os conceitos teóricos relativos à tributação, especialmente à justiça fiscal e à progressividade, apresentando a seguir a teoria da tributação equitativa; relata experiências internacionais relacionadas à tributação sobre a riqueza com destaque para os casos da Espanha e da França, mostrando em seguida dados referentes à tributação brasileira, em especial a distribuição da carga tributária do país e a alta participação dos tributos indiretos no total arrecadado, além da baixa participação dos tributos patrimoniais; e apresenta um breve histórico do Imposto sobre Grandes Fortunas no Brasil e os principais projetos de lei para sua regulamentação, analisando as questões que permeiam as discussões sobre o tributo, com o intuito de identificar as causas de sua não instituição até os dias atuais. A conclusão do trabalho aponta que a causa principal é de natureza política, pois os parlamentares e indivíduos com influência nas decisões do Congresso Nacional, ao aprovarem a implementação do imposto, criariam sobre si mesmos uma nova imposição tributária. Ademais, o temor de que ocorra fuga de capitais e redução da poupança interna, além da possível arrecadação baixa constituem causas secundárias para a não regulamentação do tributo. / The present work aims to analyze why until nowadays the Wealth Tax was not implemented in Brazil. In order to achieve this objective, the study presents the situation of inequality in the world and in the country through notes made by the economist Thomas Piketty in his work "Capital in the Twenty-First Century", as well as data contained in reports on the distribution of world wealth; demarcates the theoretical concepts related to taxation, especially fiscal justice and progressivity, and presents the theory of equitable taxation; reports on international experiences related to wealth taxation with emphasis in the cases of Spain and France, showing next data on Brazilian taxation, in particular the distribution of the country's tax burden and the high participation of indirect taxes in the total collected, besides of the low participation of the patrimonial taxes; and presents a brief history of the Wealth Tax in Brazil and the main bills for its regulation, analyzing the issues that permeate the discussions about the tax, in order to identify the causes of its non-institution to the present day. The conclusion of the study indicates that the main cause is political in nature, since the parliamentarians and individuals with influence in the decisions of the National Congress, when approving the implementation of the tax, would create upon themselves a new tax imposition. In addition, the concern of capital flight and reduction of domestic savings, besides the possible low collection, are secondary causes for the non-regulation of the tribute.

<p>In this paper I study how the repeal of the Swedish wealth tax (1 of January 2007) has affected people´s labour supply behaviour. This particular issue is relevant because it may help us understand some of the effects of the earnings tax changes that have taken place in Sweden. Accoring to standard economic theory a repealed wealth tax is similar to an income effect for the persons who previously paid the tax. That means that they theoretically will want to consume more leisure, that is decrease their labour supply. The method I am using to test this hypothesis is a difference-in-difference approach where the treatment group consists of persons who previously paid the tax and the control group of comparable persons who did not pay the tax. The data I am using is taken from a Swedish database called LINDA, compiled by the Swedish Central Agency for Statistics (SCB). My main result in this paper is that the repealed wealth tax does not seem to have had any influnece on the labour supply behavior of the persons who previously paid the tax.</p>

In this paper I study how the repeal of the Swedish wealth tax (1 of January 2007) has affected people´s labour supply behaviour. This particular issue is relevant because it may help us understand some of the effects of the earnings tax changes that have taken place in Sweden. Accoring to standard economic theory a repealed wealth tax is similar to an income effect for the persons who previously paid the tax. That means that they theoretically will want to consume more leisure, that is decrease their labour supply. The method I am using to test this hypothesis is a difference-in-difference approach where the treatment group consists of persons who previously paid the tax and the control group of comparable persons who did not pay the tax. The data I am using is taken from a Swedish database called LINDA, compiled by the Swedish Central Agency for Statistics (SCB). My main result in this paper is that the repealed wealth tax does not seem to have had any influnece on the labour supply behavior of the persons who previously paid the tax.

On 1 January 2007 abolished Sweden as one of the last countries in EU the wealth tax. This wealth tax was in Sweden for almost 100 years. As the great debate in the context of tax reform in 1910 was not so much about the introduction of a wealth tax. The discussion was instead on the wealth tax would be proportional or progressive together with the income tax. When the government with and there finance minister, Carl Swartz, presented its government bill, 1910:88, 11 March 1910, the draft regulation on income and wealth tax was said, that now they had finally made a shift in the direct tax to the state. A change had been sought and it would have been great difficulties to be overcome and it would have been deeply entrenched ideas about this tax reform impossible. Despite all the protests from the wealthy in society, so continue this conservative government through reform with the strong support of many conservative politicians who had most to lose from this tax reform. The government also succeeded in compromising with liberals and social democrats that supported the reform. Heavy respondents in Sweden in 1910, as Kammarrätten and Bevillningsutskottet supported almost without any comment the proposal. Thus, Sweden had been given a modern tax system that applies even today more than 100 years later Introduction of the combined income and wealth tax was in continuation a great tax pump in Sweden when the governments needed to find funding for their reforms.

Thesis (doctoral)--Erasmus University, Rotterdam, 2006. / "NUR 826." Includes bibliographical references (p. 395-407).

O presente trabalho visa analisar por que até hoje o Imposto sobre Grandes Fortunas não foi implementado no Brasil. Para a consecução desse objetivo, o estudo apresenta a situação da desigualdade no mundo e no país, através de apontamentos realizados pelo economista Thomas Piketty em sua obra “O Capital no Século XXI”, bem como de dados contidos em relatórios da distribuição da riqueza mundial; demarca os conceitos teóricos relativos à tributação, especialmente à justiça fiscal e à progressividade, apresentando a seguir a teoria da tributação equitativa; relata experiências internacionais relacionadas à tributação sobre a riqueza com destaque para os casos da Espanha e da França, mostrando em seguida dados referentes à tributação brasileira, em especial a distribuição da carga tributária do país e a alta participação dos tributos indiretos no total arrecadado, além da baixa participação dos tributos patrimoniais; e apresenta um breve histórico do Imposto sobre Grandes Fortunas no Brasil e os principais projetos de lei para sua regulamentação, analisando as questões que permeiam as discussões sobre o tributo, com o intuito de identificar as causas de sua não instituição até os dias atuais. A conclusão do trabalho aponta que a causa principal é de natureza política, pois os parlamentares e indivíduos com influência nas decisões do Congresso Nacional, ao aprovarem a implementação do imposto, criariam sobre si mesmos uma nova imposição tributária. Ademais, o temor de que ocorra fuga de capitais e redução da poupança interna, além da possível arrecadação baixa constituem causas secundárias para a não regulamentação do tributo. / The present work aims to analyze why until nowadays the Wealth Tax was not implemented in Brazil. In order to achieve this objective, the study presents the situation of inequality in the world and in the country through notes made by the economist Thomas Piketty in his work "Capital in the Twenty-First Century", as well as data contained in reports on the distribution of world wealth; demarcates the theoretical concepts related to taxation, especially fiscal justice and progressivity, and presents the theory of equitable taxation; reports on international experiences related to wealth taxation with emphasis in the cases of Spain and France, showing next data on Brazilian taxation, in particular the distribution of the country's tax burden and the high participation of indirect taxes in the total collected, besides of the low participation of the patrimonial taxes; and presents a brief history of the Wealth Tax in Brazil and the main bills for its regulation, analyzing the issues that permeate the discussions about the tax, in order to identify the causes of its non-institution to the present day. The conclusion of the study indicates that the main cause is political in nature, since the parliamentarians and individuals with influence in the decisions of the National Congress, when approving the implementation of the tax, would create upon themselves a new tax imposition. In addition, the concern of capital flight and reduction of domestic savings, besides the possible low collection, are secondary causes for the non-regulation of the tribute.

From all over the globe the inequality between the rich and the poor is a topic that is debated politically and socially. Wealth tax is often mentioned as an easy solution to reduce this inequality effectively. Even in South Africa cries for a wealth tax have been heard following Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu’s comments that such a tax can help reduce the effect of past injustices. The imposition of a wealth tax has various advantages and disadvantages that are strongly debated by the proponents and opponents of the tax. The impact of these advantages and disadvantages has however not been measured and quantified up to date. Although the disadvantages seem to outweigh the advantages, it seems that there is some scope for a wealth tax to be politically motivated. The dawning of the modern era has however changed the landscape for tax policies. Global mobility has resulted in individuals being able to choose where they work, live and invest. Taxes have been proved to be a factor that influences these decisions of individuals on where to live and invest. It is therefore becoming increasingly important to have tax policies that are competitive in comparison to peer countries. This study focused on determining how competitive South Africa’s tax policies are, relating to wealthy individuals, compared to the equivalent taxes in other African countries with similar sized economies. The study consists of qualitative, non-empirical research performed in the form of a literature review. The study’s finding is that South Africa has more types of taxes imposed on wealthy individuals than any other of the sampled countries. In addition, the taxes imposed are more often than not substantially higher than the equivalent charged by its peers. This could have a detrimental effect when investors start to realise that they could optimise the resources available to them by choosing not to work and live in South Africa, but would rather select one of its neighbouring countries. Not only will potential new investors be discouraged from investing, but the question also arises at which point South African residents will start to seek their fortune elsewhere. Based on these findings, it seems that there is no scope for imposing yet another wealth tax in South Africa at present. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / lmchunu2014 / Taxation / unrestricted