A panoptic view of the South African wealth tax

• Published in: South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences Vol. 28; no. 1; pp. 1 - 13
• Main Author: Ram, Asheer Jaywant
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Pretoria AOSIS 2025; African Online Scientific Information Systems (Pty) Ltd t/a AOSIS; AOSIS Publishing
• Subjects: Analysis; Bentham; Business; Business, Finance; Communication; correspondence analysis; Economics; Foucault; Management; panopticon; Public Administration; South Africa; Tax collection; Wealth tax; South Africa; panopticon; South Africa; Bentham; wealth tax; correspondence analysis; Foucault
• ISSN: 1015-8812; 2222-3436; 2222-3436
• DOI: 10.4102/sajems.v28i1.5857

BackgroundWealth taxes are a topic of intense debate, with most countries having either abolished them or considered, but not implemented such measures. The South African government is contemplating the introduction of a wealth tax, purportedly to enhance revenue collection.AimThis article examines whether the proposed South African wealth tax functions as a government panopticon, offering an alternative explanation for its introduction. It also considers the government’s transparency regarding the potential wealth tax.SettingThis article examined the opinions of tax experts in South Africa.MethodAn interpretive approach is adopted. The traits of the wealth tax and the themes of the panopticon are identified and used as the row and column headings in a correspondence table, which serves as the research instrument distributed to tax experts. The tax experts indicate any associations between the themes of the panopticon and the traits of the wealth tax. Forty aggregated responses are subjected to correspondence analysis.ResultsThe potential wealth tax functions as a panopticon. It identifies and reveals relevant tax information about high-wealth individuals, appearing to coerce their compliance.ConclusionThere is credence to the alternate rationale for introducing a wealth tax in South Africa.ContributionThis is one of the first articles to apply the panopticon, a novel theoretical framework, in a tax context in South Africa. The findings are relevant to the exploration of similar taxes in other jurisdictions and provide a means for the critical evaluation of the motives behind tax policy decisions made by governments.