Income tax scene in India is just like a congested bunch of passengers in an auto-rickshaw who are yelling at the driver for being so slow on a highway. IT law-framers for years, have been at the receiving end of flak from the entire tax-payer fraternity for various reasons. Lengthy filing procedure, irrelevant tax slabs, complex rule-book has now and then evoked the need of a fresh Income tax act. Unfortunately, that is impossible (as of now). Every year, tax gurus, professionals and intellectuals sit down and discuss at length to negate the element of ‘complexities’ in the IT act but until now efforts like these haven’t paid any fruitful dividends.
However, a ray of hope surfaced when e-tax came into picture. The new move did look to outdo the can’t-be-done-away-with evils of IT act and infused a fresh lease of life in the jaded income tax structure. The government backed the revolutionary tax filing procedure and recently, made it a compulsory for corporate houses to file their returns Online only. Seeing the broader picture, one can hardly deny the fact that e-tax has simplified the complexities involved in the filing of income tax return. However, it only managed to leave a superficial effect as people continue to find problems with present IT act.
Enter Direct Tax Code, a simpler and a fresh proposed tax system conceptualised by former Finance Minister P Chidambaram. Direct Tax code presented a much simplified way of looking at Indian tax mechanism. The best part of this proposed code is that it is extremely easy to understand hence, a layman tax-payer need not to hire the services of professionals such as Chartered Accountants and Tax preparers to file the return.
However, sudden simplification of the tax mechanism has turned out to be a phenomenon which experts are finding it hard to digest. Complaints of possible complications and other problems are already surfacing up which in certain situation might detriment the popularity of e-tax among the tax-payers which is nothing but a baseless speculation. E-tax along with Direct Tax code will only add to the popularity and simultaneously will encourage eligible tax payers to file returns. Since, the code has to a large extent demystified the complexities involved in the tax structure and filing procedure and has been well-received by the target audience. Some of the intellectuals have already given it a green signal however, final approval will still take some time.
But if everything goes well, very soon you might get to see a historic facelift of the Indian tax structure which is assured to bring about a staggering surge in the number of people who prefer to file their returns via Internet ie e-tax.
