THINK

Income tax return time again. My views on income tax should be well known by now to the one person who reads this blog ;) I think it's arbitrary, unfair and stupid. Abolish income tax and put up a sales tax/VAT on all items, let me pay tax in proportion to what I consume, that way I can't evade tax by not reporting income. The rich will obviously consume more and will pay more tax.

Why don't salaried people get breaks for depreciation/professional use of equipment? All we get is a measly 800 bucks for transport. Why can't I state that my uber-home-PC is a legitimate business expense? The worst part is that there may very well be some clause somewhere deep in the laws which allows me to do that but I will never come to know about it.

They now have an extra 1% tax as higher education cess, the original 2% education cess was very successful they say. What's with these surcharges? Can't they simply hike the basic rate of interest? And after paying this tax, I read that they plan to hike the college fees in many institutions. Right, and what did they do with the higher education cess we all paid?

Here's another one: you have a deadline for filing the income tax return, if you miss it you pay a fine. There is no deadline for a refund, hence no fine for the guv'mint - they can hold on to your refund money for centuries if they want.