Taxing time
Tackling a govt-designed obstacle course called TDS
If you’re puffing and panting and out of breath, it’s possible you’ve had to tackle the govt obstacle course called TDS, or Tax Deducted at Source, which is the twist in the tale of Income Tax.
The modern tax system was introduced in 1799 Britain by Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger to pay for the country’s ongoing war with France.
A lot of people thought that imposing a tax on income was, literally, the Pitts. But the impost, supposed to be a short-term measure, became a watershed in the economic history of a world in which taxes have become even more inevitable than death, thanks to post-mortem estate duties.
Income tax became a permanent feature of the Indian economy in 1860 when it was imposed to help defray the costs of the 1857 uprising.
I-T rules have been revised several times since then, but their labyrinthine clauses and sub-clauses are a daunting maze for all but accountants and professional bean counters.
Compliance with I-T rules became even more complex in 1961 with the introduction of TDS, which sought to prevent tax evasion. TDS requires the person or organisation from which you derive your income to pay part of your earnings directly to govt, leaving you to pay the balance.
If, through oversight, negligence, or just plain couldn’tbebotheredness, the source of your income deducts TDS but doesn’t cough up to govt, you’re hit with the double whammy of having to make up for the undeposited amount, and be taxed twice.
So come I-T returns filing time, taxpayers get into a frantic scramble to ensure that their TDS has been legitimately lodged, with no hanky or panky. Wouldn’t it be better if the govt trusted you enough to pay all your tax by yourself without involving assorted third parties who might or might not prove reliable?
If the govt can trust you enough to participate in the process by which it assumes office, why can’t it trust you to fulfil your tax obligations without the involvement of others?
Don’t ask. There’s no logic to TDS, logic having been deducted. At source.
Disclaimer
Views expressed above are the author’s own.
