Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa July 2014 | Page 10

PROPERTY ALERTS
The Good

Freedom, finally...

On 22 May 2014, we finally stopped working for the government – earning enough to cover the taxes, regardless
of what they are called, paid directly or indirectly by ordinary South Africans. Assuming all income goes to
government until all tax has been paid, what we earned for the first 141 days of this year went to government in the
form of taxes. This means, in effect, that South Africans work for the government for 38.6% of the year – or two
days out of every week - and only thereafter for themselves.
Tax Freedom Day (TFD) is calculated annually for the Free Market Foundation by statistician, Garth Zietsman.
Not so great news is that this year’s TFD is 13 days later than last year (9 May) and, according to Zietsman, “is
likely to be even later next year because government spending, the deficit and government debt is still increasing.
This must be funded by future taxes.”
Examples of 2014 TFDs for other countries are: Australia 10 April, United States 21 April, Estonia 24 April, New
Zealand 3 May, Lithuania 8 May and United Kingdom 28 May. Our tax levels have clearly overtaken those of some
of the most highly developed and highly taxed countries in the world, which is a most disturbing development.

The Bad

Massive property fraud

Those struggling to obtain mortgage finance for legitimate property acquisitions and suffering under the significant
delays in transferring property, will sense the irony in the fact that fraudsters, represented by a non-existent firm of
attorneys who impersonated a legitimate conveyancing attorney, have managed to transfer ownership of a luxury
home in Sandhurst in Johannesburg without the knowledge of the owners or new owner, while simultaneously
defrauding Standard Bank of R11.8 million. Using a sophisticated system of identity theft, coupled with an intricate
knowledge of the property system, was only uncovered when the owner received an offer to purchase and discovered
the house had been sold and transferred out of her name at the deeds office. While all the paperwork wa