Name: Marc David Sevitz (34)
Region: Southern Region
Job Title: CFO & Director
Years in this position: 7
Company Name: Human Robot (Pty) Ltd t/a TaxTim
Entry Category: Entrepreneur
Marc Sevitz, the founder of TaxTim, is a tax guru and a highly innovative and successful entrepreneur. He has maintained a significant presence across South African media, including regular radio slots on Cape Talk, assisting taxpayers in need of assistance during tax season.
’The aim of TaxTim is to assist taxpayers who are unable to afford the traditional tax practitioner, have trouble understanding the complexities of eFiling or cannot take the time off work to stand in a SARS queue. We are concerned that taxpayer rights are being infringed upon by the top-down focus of tax administration, which we believe does not take into account the hardships faced by individual taxpayers,’ he says.
In 2016, Marc successfully negotiated a partial exit of TaxTim by taking investment from MMI Strategic Investments, an investment arm of the JSE-listed company MMI Holdings, one of South Africa’s largest insurers.
‘Using our technology we are also trying to change the way tax efficiency is looked at to be more dynamic and real-time in order for taxpayers to stress less, save more and be more compliant. Through our partnership with MMI, we are launching a new product, a Tax Health Score, that we hope will revolutionise the financial wellness environment and financial product space, specifically for millennials,’ he added.
Marc constantly engages with fellow entrepreneurs whenever possible in order to speak about his experience and the journey of starting his own business. He has also collaborated with one of Unisa’s tax professors making use of TaxTim as a case which was presented to an International Tax Conference on the Future of Tax Administration in Sydney, Australia, in April 2018.
Marc was proudly selected to represent TaxTim, by Deloitte Germany, through their EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region, to present what the future digital tax advisor will look like − one of only eight companies from around the world selected to present in Berlin.
Marc currently serves on the SAICA IPD Committee and is chairman of the ARC Committee in order to be actively involved in the education and transformation of the CA(SA) profession and providing a fresh perspective and challenging the more traditional ways of thinking in order to produce dynamic, all-rounded chartered accountants.
Marc is also director of an NPO, Future Thinking Foundation, specialising in educational programming for underprivileged children.