The Effectiveness of Tax Relief Initiatives on SMEs in South Africa.

Tax relief initiatives have been introduced by the South African government in order to assist small business to grow and become sustainable. The high failure rate of businesses coupled with the alarmingly high rate of unemployment in the country is the main reason the government embarked on these initiatives and strategies. The different tax initiatives available to qualifying small businesses include small business corporation tax and turnover tax. The research has been undertaken to determine if small business tax initiatives introduced by SARS are effective and are being utilised by small businesses. A questionnaire was sent to eighty five small business owners to determine if they are aware of small business tax and turnover tax and also to determine if they are utilising these initiatives. The findings from this study reveal that approximately half of the respondents do not know about these specific tax initiatives. Only a small percentage of small business are eligible for small business tax and none of the respondents in the sample are eligible for turnover tax. The majority of small business owners agree and strongly agree that the initiatives introduced by the government are ineffective and need to be revised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]