Since everybody is talking about only 2 things now a days- one is UP election and the other is the coming budget let me also poke my neck out and write a post about the same.
First about UP election: Who will win? It does not matter which party comes to power as UP will remain a hotbed of caste politics and corruption. Why I am so pessimistic? Because none of the party is committed to development politics and will do anything and everything to grab power, be it fielding corrupt criminals or using every trick in the horse trading book and a few out of it to come to power.
The so called new age netajis and baba log will be asked to sit on the sidelines by the real deal makers once the results are out tomorrow so that new alliances can be formed to share power. Those who don't want to see each other today will be finding new ways to give multiple orgasms to each other tomorrow. By the way I hope we all remember that UP is not the only state that has gone to polls? Quickly name the other 2 or is it 3 states that have gone to polls in February 2012.
Now that I have given my gloomy prediction on the UP election results let me give my simple one item budget list as a salaried person to the FM this year. (Not that he paid any heed to my wish list in the past).
Every successive finance minister has been increasing the indirect taxes every year with the plea that direct tax collection is not increasing and there is a lot of tax evasion by citizens. Well this is not true for the salaried employees like yours truly.
Since tax for people like me is deducted at source so there is no scope for tax evasion by salaried class for most of their income. The exception would be small reimbursable expenses and income like interest income etc. But in most cases those are too insignificant to be worried about.
Hence the salaried class has been bearing the double burden of paying the increasing service and other indirect taxes they have not received any benefit in the form of any reduction in direct taxes.
Hence my appeal to the Finance minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee to give some relief to the salaried class in form of zero Income Tax till an income to 5 lakh per annum from the current level.
He may or may not do it for the self employed or business class because a lot of expenses like driver, car, telephones, visit to relatives for marriage in another town, dining out etc. are passed on as business expenses thus reducing the total taxable income. For a salaried person no such respite is available and all the expenses are done from post tax income.
Please don’t get me wrong I am not claiming that non salaried people are tax cheats all I am saying is that they have legal loopholes available to reduce their taxable income, while the salaried class has got none except for the 1 Lakh Rs exemption. Every single paisa that we spend is after honestly paying our taxes, and if the FM has been increasing indirect taxes because some people are not paying their taxes then the honest tax payers should be rewarded in some form. What could be easier than to exempt their income till INR 5Lakh per year.
Just imagine the amount of paperwork that the government will save on account of the same. As there is no additional tax benefit the government is getting by making salaried people file their returns. There is a rule that exempt people making upto 5 Lakh per year, but it has so many ifs and buts that no body can take advantage of the same.
Just imagine the amount of paperwork that the government will save on account of the same. As there is no additional tax benefit the government is getting by making salaried people file their returns. There is a rule that exempt people making upto 5 Lakh per year, but it has so many ifs and buts that no body can take advantage of the same.
So my friend if you are a salaried employee please forward this blog post to as many people as possible, like it on facebook, +1 it on google+ and continue to do it till it reaches Pranab da. Let it be our signature campaign to reduce the direct Income tax on the salaried class.
After all what have we got to loose, except for our taxes J
Thanks for reading, do forward the same.
Salaried folks are bearing the brunt of tax burden across the globe. Its always the average, go fearing middle class ! Nice post and blog..
ReplyDeletewww.nitinjain.blogspot.com
You are right Nitin, salaried people, specially if you in private job are the worst hit, simply because there is no consolidated vote bank from salaried employees. Hence request to forward this blog so that more people can read it and push FM for relief to salaried people.
ReplyDeletethanks.