SOUTH AFRICAN BUDGET SPEECH 2009 BY TREVOR MANUEL AND PROPERTY {draw:a} Trevor Manuel has given what some speculate to be his last budget speech today 11 February 2009. To be honest, the budget is pretty much what was expected. There are some savings on personal tax, smokers and drinkers will pay more while there is a higher fuel levy. As for property, the Capital Gains Tax exclusion threshold was raised from R16000 to R17500. Trevor Manuel gave the widely anticipated budget speech to parliament earlier today. The 2009 South African budget, Trevor Manuel’s thirteenth, might very well be the last budget with him at the reigns. Even though Trevor focused a lot on tightening the belts there’s still 2bn allocated to FIFA world cup stadiums and related infrastructure. Thanks to Fin24, here’s a snapshot of what the South African Budget has in store for us: PERSONAL TAX The 2009 budget provides tax relief of R13bn to individuals to counter the effects of inflation (bracket creep). This means people under 65 years of age will be affected as follows: Those earning a total amount of R60 000 will be taxed to an average rate of 1.7% - saving R1 476. Those earning R200 000 will be taxed at an average rate of 15.5% saving R2 426. Those earning R750 000 will be taxed at an average rate of 31% saving R5 526. The tax threshold for individuals younger than 65 will be R54 200, while it stands at R84 200 for those older than 65. CORPORATE TAX There’s no such luck for companies, though, as no changes were proposed for corporate tax rates. But there was a break for entrepreneurs as the value-added tax (VAT) registration threshold was raised from R300 000 to R1m. TAX ON INTEREST AND DIVIDEND INCOME The annual exemption on interest earned for people younger than 65 years has been raised from R19 000 to R21 000. For individuals over 65 the threshold increases from R27 500 to R30 000. For interest and dividends from foreign investments, the...