Letter to BS: Ease of paying tax is important for living, doing business

Nobel prize-winning economist Richard Thaler would approve - if you want people to do something, make it easy, he said

The changes proposed in Budget to the personal income tax system — simplified for incomes up to Rs 15 lakh per annum, the taxpayer’s charter, the reduced interface with tax bureaucracy — indicate a welcome move towards easier compliance that could widen the tax net. Taxpayers with an annual income of Rs 5 lakh to Rs 15 lakh will now have an option of paying taxes at a lower rate provided they forgo assorted exemptions. The government’s intention could be to move taxpayers to a low-tax regime with few exemptions, which explains the nudge — doing away with 70 of