This Article is From Jun 18, 2016

From Chetan Bhagat With Love, Tips For Tax Officials

From Chetan Bhagat With Love, Tips For Tax Officials

Tax officials should download forms of Singapore and Hong Kong to take notes, Chetan Bhagat said.

Highlights

  • Chetan Bhagat spoke at annual summit of tax officials in Delhi
  • Taxpayers not be treated as criminals unless proven otherwise: Bhagat
  • Tax forms should be simplified, jargon should be avoided: Bhagat
New Delhi: While Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to officials this week about ending the terror surrounding the tax collector, he was not the only one.

Speaking at an annual summit of tax officials in Delhi on Thursday after the PM Modi's address, author Chetan Bhagat presented a ten-point cheatsheet on how to "drain the dread".

According to a source who attended the summit, the 42-year-old author said it was about time India behaved like a modern, world-class economy when it came to tax collection and learned to "tax with love".

He said while the tax department was inclined to act like cops, taxpayers should be treated as a customer not as a criminal unless proven otherwise.

Terming tax forms "too complex" he asked them to download forms used in Hong Kong or Singapore and simplify them here at home.

Mr Bhagat's next suggestion seemed to come straight out of the taxpayer's heart: Ditch the jargon. "We all struggle with Form 16 and we know that the SARAL form isn't simple," Mr Bhagat said, calling for simpler names to simpler forms.

While one big talking point at the meet was IT and digitisation, Mr Bhagat pushed for a slick and robust website. "Hire a good company to revamp the customer interface. Get an app," Mr Bhagat purportedly told the gathering.

Mr Bhagat also termed the paper used for notices and receipts as poor quality. "Get good quality paper. We are world's top economy," he said.

Calling taxpayers nation builders, the author also vouched for the rich countering the impression that they evade taxes. Mr Bhagat's suggestion: "Send top 10 taxpayers a nice letter and memento (not cheap quality please) to thank them."

Then there was a push for tax guidance centres to help people figure out how to pay taxes. "Make them nice. They should not be like a sarkari torture chamber with endless waits and creaky fans. This is the last department that can claim it doesn't have money," Mr Bhagat said.

While tax officials heard Mr Bhagat with rapt attention, the Q and A session in the end provided a twist when a hard-boiled tax commissioners asked Mr Bhagat, "Tax collection is a negative job. How can it be sugar coated? How to tax with love?"

Mr Bhagat, according to those present, could offer little but a lock without a key - "find a way," he said.
.