The road to an improved tax curriculum in South African schools

Abstract

Since the vast number of scholars will be the taxpayers of the future, implementing tax education at school level should greatly enhance the success of the tax system. This will ensure that the majority of South Africans will have the opportunity to receive a basic understanding of tax and be more aware of what may be expected of them in the future. This paper investigates the existing level and adequacy of tax education in South African schools. A number of shortcomings within the current school tax curriculum in South Africa have been identified, for example use of wrong terminology and the absence of flow charts and case studies. In addition, it has been found that educators do not receive proper training on the content of the curriculum, with no assistance available from the South African Revenue Service (SARS) in this regard. It is suggested that SARS and the Department of Education (DoE) work in collaboration to improve the current tax curriculum, which will potentially make an increasing percentage of South Africans responsible taxpayers, who properly understand their obligation to contribute to and improve the tax compliance culture within this country, one of the main visions of the South African Revenue Service.