<center><img src="https://i.imgur.com/4q8376U.jpg"/></center>

[source](https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/origin-of-the-phrase-tipping-point)

<center><img src="https://i.imgur.com/v2StJ5W.png"/></center>

[source](https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/tipping-point)

The Tipping Point in your country's economy is something I have been thinking about for some time and today is aw a thread on Twitter about this very subject. Over the last 15 years the South African Taxes have not been utilized as they should have been via Government tenders with most of this being stolen via corruption. These tenders are meant to bring money back into the economy, back to the people thus boosting business.

The illicit trade that has been growing over the last decade is just as worrying as that is trade that doesn't pay taxes. If you have less taxes being collected and a high percentage of the tax that is collected being skimmed of via corruption then you are reaching a tipping point of no return.

Many like myself feel we are close to that precipice and is only a matter of time before we plunge down into total chaos. Some would argue we are already there with no police force you can rely on, corrupt officials and an open border policy. What could go wrong with that type of combination? 

A recent report showed that the South African Revenue Services is losing over R100 Billion per year due to the illicit trade whether it is counterfeit goods smuggling or grey area items all contributing to tax evasion.

The same argument many had years ago what is the point of paying taxes anymore as a high percentage is stolen or misused anyway. The country is in a mess and this puts pressure on the tax payers and businesses trying to make ends meet. Legitimate businesses cannot compete with other companies who are not playing fair by passing the rules.

The 32% unemployment stat that is often bounded around is not true as those figures are far worse and we will never know the true number as the country has no clue how many people even live here now. Thanks to an open border policy with corrupt border officials how many illegals are residing in SA now as the real number no one knows. Having a high unemployment rate tells you that those individuals are not generating any tax for the government and now are a burden on society.

The lockdowns we experienced over the last few years with a ban on alcohol and cigarette sales only fueled smuggling and the illicit trade to expand out of control. These taxes are lost forever and you can thank certain Government officials for creating this problem as they were making decisions that benefitted themselves being part of the illegal set up.

I think we can all guess what is going to happen if the Government needs more money and that is to turn the printers on creating more. There is a massive shortfall in taxes and the only way is to become creative by increasing what everyone pays.

<center><img src="https://i.imgur.com/9mgLNrH.jpg"/></center>

[source](https://www.sars.gov.za/media-release/media-release-sars-collects-r1-564-trillion/)

The tax year 2021/22 the Government received R1.5 trillion and we know over 10% is being lost through criminal activities and tender corruption along with R51 billion being unaccounted for. How much more taxes can the few paying be squeezed for as like anything if you over squeeze it will start to dry up.

The next 5 years are crucial for this country to clamp down on what is obviously going wrong and unfortunately I just don't see this happening. This is the same as the goldfish bowl analogy as if you have less and less fish paying for everything you end up with nothing.