Income tax
With the development of market economy throughout the world, the importance of income tax as the source of income of the government is increasing.
For a sustainable and mass development of a nation like us there is no alternative but to be self-sufficient economically.
The government can ensure such development by utilizing the national resources like human skill, technology, natural resources such as gas and coal, and overall, which is the most important, transparent and efficient monetary management of government funds.
For the sake of market economy, taxes on import items, especially the raw materials hinder the possibility of developing industries both small and large.
Now the income tax can play a vital role to generate the much-needed funds for the government. It is true that most of the people are reluctant to pay tax because it is paid directly in cash. The second problem is the harassment a taxpayer faces while paying tax. Those who go to the tax office regularly know what the suffering is.
The third problem is that income tax rules are not clear to most of the people as the return form is too long and contains too many questions with some complicated calculations. It is true that literacy rate of our country for understanding the rules is very low. The government has not taken the matter into account. It is not fair that every taxpayer requires to know all the rules and has to pay penalty for not knowing the rules.
Recently, the self assessment procedure was introduced but it also limited the scope of utilization by the conditions a taxpayer has to fulfil to get the benefit.
The recent caretaker government has introduced the universal self assessment procedure that looks better for tax payers.
The tax department calls the taxpayer for 'hearing'. It looks like the tax paying is a judicial procedure where the tax office is part of a dispute and it is also the judge. So how can we expect a fair judgment on the dispute? Another interesting thing is that they do not have to prove anything, they just give a decision and it is the responsibility of the taxpayer to fight against the decision in 'appeal' and 'tribunal' and, interestingly again, justice is sought from the tax department which is part of the dispute.
It is time to think whether tax paying method can be changed and be handed over to the bank to collect income tax from the taxpayers who will pay it by self assessment procedure. It is the demand of time to ease the tax rules. It should be a payment procedure rather than a 'judicial procedure'.
Any complaint against the taxpayer should be left to the court which is free and thus the taxpayer will be equal part of a dispute as the tax department.
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