Taxes

The tax departments initiative to harness the power of big data and automation has already provided several benefits to taxpayers. These steps that reduce tax evasion and make life simpler would , in the normal course, have been welcomed by the honest tax payers. It has already speeded up return processing and issuance of refunds. In the normal course therefore honest taxpayers would welcome this initiative if only…… the implementation process was smoother and the tax department officials attitude was not misaligned (they view taxpayers as evaders unless proven otherwise) with the finance ministers stated view of trusting tax payers unless proven otherwise. Harsh’s article in Business Standard today gives specific examples of the Tax officials misaligned attitude and the smaller implementation issues besides the bungled introduction of the new portal.