Taxing taxes
Taxing taxes ‘Are you a tax payer?’ asked my teenage daughter’s friend. She found this question funny and said, ‘No!’ The reason for her to find the question funny is, she hasn’t started earning. I started thinking about the tax system in India. My daughter who has no earnings is not a tax payer ‘only technically’. But practically, she pays tax! You find this intriguing? Let me explain. Every Indian from birth starts paying indirect tax and continues to pay various taxes until he/she dies. Right from tooth brush to property, whatever you buy you are expected to pay various taxes to state and central governments, with different names like, sales tax, service tax, VAT - value added tax (even if no value is added), etc. There are some taxes levied by state government and some other taxes levied by the central government. It’s ridiculous, even when the consumer is not selling anything, he has to pay the ‘sales tax’ while he is ac...