Is the Turnover Tax System Perceived to Be Too Complex for Micro-enterprise Owners/Managers? An Exploratory Study

Astrid Hellberg, Sharon Smulders and Mphagahlele Ndlovu ()
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Astrid Hellberg: University of South Africa
Sharon Smulders: University of South Africa
Mphagahlele Ndlovu: University of South Africa

A chapter in Impacting Society Positively Through Technology in Accounting and Business Processes, 2025, pp 731-748 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract The National Treasury launched the Turnover Tax System (TTS) to alleviate the tax compliance burden of micro-enterprises and negate the need to attain the assistance of a tax practitioner to be tax compliant. Notwithstanding this endeavour instituted to aid micro-enterprises, the uptake remains low. The objective of this study is to examine whether the low adoption rate of the TTS may be attributed to its perceived complexity amongst owners or managers of micro-enterprises. This study was conducted in the Gauteng province (except for a Cape Town and Nelspruit participant), South Africa. A qualitative research approach was implemented. Semi-structured interviews to gather insights from a sample of 19 owners of micro-enterprises were used. The participants were selected through purposive and snowball sampling techniques. The principal finding of this study revealed that participants lacked a comprehension of the TTS; that the participants found the TTS legislation to be too complex and continued to obtain assistance from tax practitioners to comply with their TTS obligations. The TTS concept is viewed as good by micro-enterprise owners although the law and administration thereof are too complex, and the South African Revenue Service (SARS) officials could benefit from refining their understanding of the TTS. For the TTS to be effective and meet its intended objective, it should be simplified from both a legislative and administrative perspective.

Keywords: Exploratory qualitative research; Micro-enterprise; SMMEs; Taxation; Tax canons; Turnover tax system (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:prbchp:978-3-031-84885-8_40

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-84885-8_40

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