Letter: Tax adequately

The editorial, “An idea before its time” (May 3), brings up a number of issues and almost supports a move not to tax farm income. Taxing agricultural income is a complex issue because even though the income is legally attributable to the landowner, in practice several other people have a claim on the income. Thus, a plot with a single owner officially may earn Rs 5 lakh, but the land might have at least five other sharers in the family. This makes the process quite complicated.
 
Another logic for sparing agricultural income is unpredictable weather. A farmer, who would