{"id":19183,"date":"2022-05-11T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-11T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/high-taxes-blamed-for-stifling-economy"},"modified":"2022-05-11T17:15:21","modified_gmt":"2022-05-11T17:15:21","slug":"high-taxes-blamed-for-stifling-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/high-taxes-blamed-for-stifling-economy","title":{"rendered":"High taxes blamed for stifling economy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. <\/strong><\/span>LAZARUS AMUKESHE and MATTHEW DLAMINI<\/p>\n

WHILE the government has shelved introducing the dividend tax that was expected to be announced in finance minister Iipumbu Shiimi’s budget speech recently, analysts say even if it ever gets to be introduced, it would be detrimental to business growth.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the Cirrus Capital Talk podcast, founders Rowland Brown and Rome Mostert said introducing the tax would not even be a long-term solution and the treasury should rather think strategically of where the country needs to be in terms of taxes.<\/p>\n

Former finance minister Calle Schlettwein had said there was a need for the country to introduce a flat 10% tax on dividends paid to local shareholders.<\/p>\n

At the moment, dividends received from a Namibian source to a Namibian resident are exempt from tax, while dividends paid to non-residents are subject to a withholding tax.<\/p>\n

When Shiimi took over, he was expected to push through the amendments although he faced some resistance, which appears to still continue.<\/p>\n

\u201cNamibia is quite ineffectively priced. It’s not only big companies that can create employment for everyone, but an aggregate of small enterprises coming through can be more effective in job creation and social upliftment,\u201d said Mostert.<\/p>\n

The two Cirrus founders said while taxes can be more supportive of the general economy, they must not suppress the growth of the economy, particularly the growth of small businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cTaxes that are regressive to SMEs (small and medium enterprises) are detrimental to business growth,\u201d said Brown.<\/p>\n

Brown, known to be very critical of government policies, likened a government that raises taxes to the worst shareholder scenario where that shareholder does not come for meetings, does not help move the business forward but demands cash payouts all the time.<\/p>\n

He said the relationship between businesses and shareholders is that even if shareholders invest in the business over and over, the government will still want its share of taxes and in the process stifle the growth of some businesses, especially small businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou will realise that such a shareholder adds to hurdles through bureaucracy and the indirect costs they bring. As a result, you realise that at times being compliant with government requirements prevents companies from chasing the next dollar that would keep the business afloat,\u201d he argued.<\/p>\n

This year, Namibia expects to rake in N$216 million in dividend taxes from distributions extended to non-residents.<\/p>\n

Looking at the numbers, they said there have been high unemployment levels for a long time, very little economic growth and stagnant government revenue because of low corporate tax and not many new post-independence businesses to create jobs.<\/p>\n

Ironically, the government would want more taxes to cover its expenses and reduce the deficit but higher taxes mean lower revenue for the government.<\/p>\n

The high unemployment rate means that there are many potential employees, but employers do not have sufficient work for them because of things like high corporate taxes.<\/p>\n

Shiimi was expected to cut corporate taxes this year, as he had indicated in 2021. However, that still remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

Namibia has also not had personal tax tables adjusted for inflation for over 10 years.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Namibia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. LAZARUS AMUKESHE and MATTHEW DLAMINI WHILE the government has shelved introducing the dividend tax that was expected to be announced in finance minister Iipumbu Shiimi’s budget speech recently, analysts say even if it ever gets to be introduced, it would be detrimental to business growth. Speaking on the Cirrus Capital Talk podcast, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":19182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,8,16],"tags":[234,236,233],"class_list":["post-19183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-namibia","tag-namibia"],"yoast_head":"\nHigh taxes blamed for stifling economy - Namibia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"LAZARUS AMUKESHE and MATTHEW DLAMINI WHILE the government has shelved introducing the dividend tax that was expected to ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/high-taxes-blamed-for-stifling-economy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"High taxes blamed for stifling economy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"LAZARUS AMUKESHE and MATTHEW DLAMINI WHILE the government has shelved introducing the dividend tax that was expected to ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/high-taxes-blamed-for-stifling-economy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Namibia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-05-11T17:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-05-11T17:15:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/05\/postQueueImg_18-627bef0e036d1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"572\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/high-taxes-blamed-for-stifling-economy#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/high-taxes-blamed-for-stifling-economy\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"High taxes blamed for stifling economy\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-05-11T17:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-05-11T17:15:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/high-taxes-blamed-for-stifling-economy\"},\"wordCount\":536,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/high-taxes-blamed-for-stifling-economy#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/05\/postQueueImg_18-627bef0e036d1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"africa press\",\"Africa Press-Namibia\",\"namibia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/high-taxes-blamed-for-stifling-economy#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/high-taxes-blamed-for-stifling-economy\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/high-taxes-blamed-for-stifling-economy\",\"name\":\"High taxes blamed for stifling economy - 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