Matthew Lester: Tax alert – big news coming in next week’s Mini Budget
Some say the news event of October will again be Oscar Pistorius.
Matthew Lester: Investing local is still lekker
There are many disturbing images of our beautiful country.
Who's Heritage Day is it anyway?
It is not difficult to come to the conclusion that we are steeped in a deep heritage of assassinating each other WEDNESDAY, September 24, was Heritage Day.
Matthew Lester: Agric land switched to game farming coming back to bite SA
There is not much fun to be had when attending farmers’ days anymore. For years these functions used to be all about the droughts, floods or pests, lousy market prices and increasing fuel prices. We could generally drink out a solution.
Matthew Lester: Lifelong learning – part-time MBA with tax benefits
It is now five years since the depths of the global credit crunch. The rot may have been checked but world prosperity seems to still be a long way off.
Personal collections – what is their true investment potential?
Some years ago I received a Mandela gold coin as a long-service award.
Matthew Lester: Save our teachers. F$@k the cruising Abil executive
I quote from Prof Lawrence Wright lecture at Rhodes University 16 November, 2011. (Yes, that’s now nearly 4 years ago!).
Matthew Lester: Confession of an Eastern Cape coke addict
The Eastern Cape pays less than 8% of South Africa’s personal tax.
Matthew Lester: Judge Masipa got Oscar judgement spot on. Here’s why.
For the past two years even the National Budget Speech has been chased out of the media spotlight by Oscar Pistorius.
Matthew Lester: Bravo Tim Noakes – stuff those empty suits and their dusty tomes
My favorite book ever, even beyond JD Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye’, is Apsley Cherie-Garrard’s ‘the worst journey in the world.
Matthew Lester: Whose Heritage Day is it anyway?
Wednesday 24 September is Heritage Day. It is a pity that our country, so rich in heritage, seems to have reduced this important day to a bring-and-braai pissup.
Matthew Lester: Goodbye Great SA Summer Holiday – and coastal fun spots
Matthew Lester has a light pen. And a way of teaching us about his speciality – tax – by working lessons through seemingly unrelated stories.
Matthew Lester: Rising food prices, a spark that ignites unrest
“Cry havoc – and let loose the Dogs of War.” Frederick Forsyth didn’t pen the line.
Matthew Lester: Preview of the maxi Important Mini Budget (video)
This year’s Mini Budget, to be presented to Parliament tomorrow.
Matthew Lester: My assessment of the 2014 Mini-Budget
New Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene this afternoon delivered his first major speech to Parliament in his new role.
Matthew Lester: The thing that keeps me awake at night
It must be damn tough to be South Africa’s minister of finance. Personally I would rather gut fish.
Matthew Lester: How f***ed are the poor in RSA?
Sorry to ABIL’s ex director Tami Sokutu, I just cannot leave this theme alone.
3 images that turn dreams into nightmares of uncertainty
I subscribe to the view that dreaming makes life bearable. So I take the dogs out regularly so they can walk while I dream about the future. But there are three images that today turn my regular dreams into a nightmare of uncertainty.
Round 1 – Sanitising the offshore
The 2nd Offshore Amnesty (Oops Special Voluntary Disclosure Programme) starts on 1 October 2017 and will allow a throng of SA taxpayers to sanitise years of aggressive tax planning through the repayment of taxes going back to 2010 and paying tax on 50% of the seed capital of the offshore structure.
#feesmustfall: A humanitarian crisis at SA’s universities on the leap year!
Please take a few minutes to see how we have stuffed up higher education funding
Matthew Lester challenges private sector to help solve #FeesMustFall crisis
The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) helped 186 150 university students with financial aid totalling R7 billion in 2015.
Cut PG some slack – Hawks extension will do no harm
It is now 3 weeks since the National Budget Speech and I have travelled around South Africa a few times
King IV – A lesson in ethics from umpire Dickie Bird.
The King Report on Corporate Governance has been cited as the most effective summary of the best international practices in corporate governance.
Matthew Lester: The University crisis – Students turned street children
Fellow graduates and the business community of South Africa, I appeal for your support in getting behind a humanitarian crisis that is fast developing at our universities.
Matthew Lester: Sugar tax not so sweet. Answer lies in VAT.
I can walk my dogs through a field full of mielies and they won’t pinch even one.
Matthew Lester paints #Budget2016 – SA embarked on road to fiscal recovery
My God South Africans have become a negative lot. What is wrong with us?
Matthew Lester: Gordhan’s budget critical – biggest comeback since Lazarus
If you had asked me 6 months ago ‘what’s happening with Pravin Gordhan?’
Matthew Lester: SA on brink, hopes pinned on Gordhan
Few economists will question the wisdom of the Reserve Bank's 50 basis point increase announced on Thursday 28 January 2016. The increase came as no surprise.
Matthew Lester: Enough with bureaucracy. Let’s go fishing.
The definition of a privileged South Africans should be ‘those who don’t have to kneel and beg in front of a bank manager or loan shark every January.’
Matthew Lester on #FeesMustFall: Don’t give it to the rich
The 2015 student protests brought a victory for all, the waiving of any increases in fees. The shortfall is to be picked up by government and universities’
Matthew Lester: Nene’s last stand – preservation. Will Gordhan revisit?
As the current tax year comes to an end and new legislation looks set to kick in, Matthew Lester is sinking his teeth into the countless issues on the go.
Conference highlights key issues affecting tax landscape
TECHNICAL amendments to legislation, a lack of capacity by the authorities and advisers, and taxpayer resistance to continue paying taxes in the face of heightened corruption were highlighted on Tuesday at a tax conference as major challenges affecting the tax landscape.
Matthew Lester: Let’s have a schooling revolution (lower carbon footprint, too)
When I finally left St Johns College all the matrics were presented with an enormous book containing the history of the school.
Matthew Lester: My Mandela gold coin – not exactly financial planning
When I finally left St Johns College all the matrics were presented with an enormous book containing the history of the school.
Don’t be lured by relief on lump sum
The budget announcement that moved the tax threshold applied to lump-sum withdrawal benefits from retirement funds came somewhat as a surprise.
