What are we buying with our tax money?

Only around 36 million people, out of a total of 1270 million, in India pay income tax. That is a shocking statistic and is taken to indicate that there is large scale cheating by the people. The Chief Economic Adviser, Arvind Subramanian pointed out that the number of voters in India is 20 times larger than the total number of taxpayers. Politicians blame people for evading taxes and lazy journalists echo the same lies. So what is the truth? The rich can afford an army of accountants to advise them on how to reduce their tax bills. As they do all over the world. Who enacts tax laws with more loopholes than Swiss cheese? Politicians. But there maybe another reason why most Indians do not pay taxes, which is so shameful that politicians will never acknowledge it. Which is that the vast majority of Indians do not earn enough to pay taxes. The second reason why Indians get labeled as tax dodgers is because the taxable income is too low, whereas in the UK it is 4 times as much. At such low rates plumbers, electricians and taxi drivers should fall in the tax bracket. Politicians will not go after these people because they will be accused of being against the working class and lose votes. Reserve Bank Governor, Raghuram Rajan said," So the circle is complete. The poor and the underprivileged need the politician to help them get jobs and public services. The crooked politician needs the businessman to provide the funds that allow him to supply patronage to the poor and fight elections. The corrupt businessman needs the crooked politician to get public resources and contracts cheaply. And the politician needs the votes of the poor and the underprivileged. Every constituency is tied to the other in a cycle of dependence, which ensures that the status quo prevails." Succinctly put, sir. So, politicians need the poor to bribe for votes so they keep them poor by their policies. The massive black money in India is not because we dodge taxes but because crony capitalism results in massive corruption. Social handouts requires vast amounts of money so the government taxes virtually all income at source. We file tax returns at the end of the financial year and receive refunds from the income tax department. This requires so much work that it takes many months to transfer refunds into our accounts. Imagine if, like in the US, half the people, that is 600 million, were paying tax. The entire civil service would have to be employed in paying back tax refunds. The pernicious TDS system forces people to work for the government by deducting tax from rent or from sale of property and deposit it with the government. There is no explanation as to why a person should be forced to work as a servant of the government without any salary or compensation of any sort, while civil servants get huge perks. While they get pensions and free healthcare for life we get nothing for paying tax. You pay to buy something. What are we buying with our tax money?