July 2014 | Page 4

the phoenix The Art of Taxation I subscribe to the newsletters of Cees Bruggemans, the consulting economist at Bruggemans & Associates, and for good reason. Cees has a prodigious output, commenting an all things economic on a daily basis, and most of his articles are interesting and newsworthy. ➲ The South African taxpayer I share these newsletters with my readers by posting them on our www.abrbuzz.co.za website, and for those of you who appreciate his comments you can delve even further by going to his website www.bruggemans.co.za T he reason I mention this is because recently he commented on his opportunity to listen to Judge Dennis Davis discuss his viewpoint regarding the appropriate framework for the South African tax system. Bruggemans says that “it was like being back in my 1974 Honours Class, with Prof Jan Sadie talking Public Finance (on the book by Musgrave), or for that matter a few years later working with Prof Daantjie Franszen or paging through the Franszen Commission Report”. Bruggemans also noted that these discussions made him feel that he was “in the presence of the ultimate in common se