# You could lose as much as R12,000 a year from the NHI taking your medical aid tax credits

- Link: https://dearsouthafrica.co.za/2019/08/15/you-could-lose-as-much-as-r12000-a-year-from-the-nhi-taking-your-medical-aid-tax-credits/
- Published: 2019-08-15T13:14:44+02:00
- Author: dearSA

![](https://cdn.dearsouthafrica.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/20191311/Tax-protest-
2.png "Tax protest 2")

The new National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill, tabled in parliament on 8 August, 
sheds some light on the new universal health coverage will be funded.

The main question for medical aid members and other taxpayers is whether they can
still belong to medical aids and if so, whether they will be forced to pay not only
their medical aid contributions, but to also contribute towards the NHI.

According to Aneria Bouwer, partner at law firm Bowmans, the answer to both questions
is ‘yes’, although the details have not yet been released.

Bouwer said that the NHI will be funded by way of:

General tax revenue, which will include transferring funds from provincial health
budgets to the NHI Fund;
 A payroll tax (employer and employee); and A surcharge
on personal income tax. Taxpayers’ medical scheme fees tax credit will be reallocated
to the NHI Fund;

Tax credits

The proposal that Taxpayers’ medical scheme fees tax credit be reallocated to the
NHI Fund has previously been mooted as a way for funding the NHI.

“However, it seems more certain that taxpayers will no longer receive medical scheme
fees tax credits, which for a family of four, currently provides relief of just 
more than R12,000 per year,” Bouwer said.

This amount is determined annually by SARS which states that the taxpayer who paid
the medical scheme contributions is entitled to R310 per month in rebates.

This rises to R620 per month for the taxpayer and one dependant; or R620 in respect
of two dependants.

Taxpayers are also entitled to R209 per month for each additional dependant on the
scheme.

Total cost to taxpayers?

“There is as yet no indication as to how much this will cost taxpayers,” Bouwer 
said.

“The taxes will be imposed by a money Bill to be introduced by the minister of Finance.
According to the memorandum, these tax options will only be evaluated as part of
the 6th and final stage of implementation, which will presumably not be before 2022.

“Interestingly, it refers to the evaluation of the new tax options ‘in a favourable
economic environment’,”.

Bouwer said that the NHI bill also envisages that the payroll tax will be ‘small’
although there is no indication as to what this means.

“In the part of the memorandum dealing with the financial implications for the state,
it refers to the various financing options, and then states that ‘due to the current
fiscal conditions, tax increases may come at a later stage of NHI implications’,”
she said.

“It thus appears that further taxes will only be imposed at a later stage after 
evaluation of the potential impact thereof, taking into account the economic and
fiscal environment.

“There is no doubt that taxpayers will find the additional tax burden a bitter pill
to swallow,” she said.

[Article](https://businesstech.co.za/news/business/334237/you-could-lose-as-much-as-r12000-year-from-the-nhi-taking-your-medical-aid-tax-credits/)
by BusinessTech

**‘The EFF is more honest than the ANC’**

FF Plus leader Pieter Groenewald said while the ANC said they wanted expropriation
without compensation with strict preconditions, the EFF was more honest.

“The EFF is more honest than the ANC. For them, it is an ideological issue because
they say they want the land.”

He said sometimes it was difficult to tell whether the EFF and ANC were fighting,
or in love.

Groenewald added the motion should have been named the “motion to destroy the economy
and the future of South Africa”.

ACDP MP Steve Swart noted that the experts, who made presentations to the previous
ad hoc committee, advised to tread carefully in amending the Constitution.

GOOD MP Shaun August said section 25 in its current form made provision for expropriation.

“Public land must be used for public good,” he added.

NFP MP Munzoor Shaik-Emam said while his party supported an amendment, it should
be done in a way that does not disadvantage anyone.

“Two wrongs do not make a right,” he added.

ANC MP Mathole Motshekga said South Africa’s original sin was the violent dispossession
of the Khoi and San people, and that the 1913 Land Act had consolidated the dispossession
of the Khoi, San and black African people, which “degraded and dehumanised our people”.

Before voting, ANC MPs started singing, with EFF MPs joining in.

The motion was passed with 189 votes to 67, with no abstentions.

The new ad hoc committee will consider work and recommendations in the reports of
the constitutional review committee and the previous ad hoc committee on the amendment
of section 25 of the Constitution.

It will have 11 voting members, six from the ANC, two from the DA, one from the 
EFF and two from the other parties.

There will also be 11 non-voting members, two from the ANC, one from the DA, one
from the EFF, and 10 from the other parties.

The deadline for the committee to report back to the National Assembly is March 
31, 2020.

The ANC indicated earlier that it would nominate Motshekga as chairperson of the
committee. Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Minister Thoko Didiza 
was the chairperson of the fifth Parliament’s ad hoc committee.

Article from News 24