The effort in tax collection

Have you every wondered at the effort it takes for the Government to collect taxes from us. I am sure there is huge machinery that goes behind planning, implementing, tracking and collecting taxes. Then there also is another machinery that tracks, investigates and punishes defaulters.

 

I got a very funny poem on taxes from my colleague Rahul. Reading it got me thinking of the above. I will reproduce some parts of it below:

 

Tax his land,
Tax his bed,
Tax the table
At which he's fed.

 

Tax his work,
Tax his pay,
He works for peanuts
Anyway!

 

…..

…..

 

Tax his car,
Tax his gas,
Find other ways
To tax his ass.

 

Put these words
Upon his tomb,
'Taxes drove me
to my doom....'

When he's gone,
Do not relax,
Its time to apply
The inheritance tax.

 

And now the funny part! The poem ended with a list of taxes that the Govt of India collects. I tried to research as much as I could to see if they really exist and did find most of them to be real taxes..tho funny. Do correct me if any of them do not really exist

 

Accounts Receivable Tax
Airline  surcharge tax
Airline Fuel Tax
Airport Maintenance Tax
Building Permit Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Death Tax
Dog License Tax
Driving Permit Tax
Excise Taxes
Income Tax
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Petrol Tax   
Gross Receipts Tax
Health Tax
Hunting License Tax
Hydro Tax
Inheritance Tax
Interest Tax
Liquor Tax
Luxury Taxes
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Mortgage Tax
Personal Income Tax
Property Tax
Poverty Tax
Prescription Drug Tax
Property Tax
Provincial Income Tax
Real Estate Tax
Recreational Vehicle Tax
Retail Sales Tax
Service Charge Tax
School Tax  
Telephone Tax
Telephone, Provincial  and Local Surcharge Taxes
Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Water Tax
Watercraft Registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax

 

If each of the above tax collection departments were to be asked to run like SBU, I wonder how many would be profitable businesses. My point is...maybe some of these taxes are not really worth collecting, considering the amount of manpower that goes collecting it?