Goverment Atrocities a new face : Salaried to shell out more in tax

Salaried to shell out more in tax

All income earners, including the salaried and the self-employed, will soon have to fork out more tax. The Centre has finally relented on the long-standing demand from states to enhance the ceiling for tax on professions from the current level of Rs 2,500 to Rs 7,500 per year.

The tax on professions, trades, callings and employments, is a tax that the Constitution assigns to state governments/local bodies. In eight states, the state government itself collects the tax while in several others with active panchayats, the local bodies levy and collect the tax.

Article 276 puts the ceiling on the tax at Rs 2,500. The Constitution has been amended in the past to raise the tax level to bring it to the present level. Many states have been demanding that the Article should be amended again to hike the tax level to Rs 7,500 a year.

Read link : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1779260.cms

"As always, its the salaried people, the archetypical lambs to the slaughter. What I fail to fathom is that when we have a primarily agrarian economy, why on earth are we continuing to exempt 90 % of the GDP (agriculture + businessmen who typically understate/ do not declare at all) from taxes? By continuing to up the taxes on a relative minority, what is the center out to achieve, apart from another narrow-minded, populist tactis to preserve the vote banks. I think its time Chidambaram & co. get their act together and actually think & act in the long-term interest of the country by broadening the tax net and rationalizing the tax structure to ensure that a microsscopic minority is not unfairly subsidizing the rest of the nation and paying for their share of the development/ infrastructure as well. Clearly, the (salaried)oxen are already carrying a much heavier burden than they possibly can. Today, our tax slabs are getting there (in terms of parity with the advanced world), but do we even get a tenth of the benefits/ social security that denizens of the First World get? In case this elusive dream has to be realized, broadening the tax net to include the primary sector and a more stringent monitoring/tax assessment mechanism for small/mid-sized business is the only answer."

"It is disgusting on part of the govt. (both state & Center) to realize that this is not the way.... "

For IT Proffestionals Mumbai

Ashish K Gupta

Mumbai.