How South Africa's 30-Year-Old Luxury Tax Is Keeping Us All Poorer

Right now, as you're watching this video on your phone, you're looking at a device that the South African government officially considers a luxury item. Not just high-end flagship phones – we're talking about basic smartphones that cost as little as R1,000.

The same classification applies to your gaming console, your headphones, your digital camera, and even your air conditioner. All of these everyday electronics are subject to a 9% luxury tax that was designed three decades ago.

But it gets more absurd. If you bought a car for R250,000 in 1994, you were genuinely purchasing luxury – maybe a sleek Jaguar XJ-6 that cost R369,505, or you could comfortably afford that BMW 320i for just R106,590 and still have money left over. Fast forward thirty years to today, and that same R250,000 threshold now captures a basic Kia Picanto, yet our government is still treating it like a luxury purchase.

This isn't just about outdated tax brackets – this is about a system that's actively making technology more expensive for everyone and keeping millions of South Africans disconnected from the digital economy. Today, we're diving deep into how a 30-year-old law is affecting everything from the smartphone in your pocket to South Africa's entire economic future.

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