Journal Press India

Editorial

January - June 2024, Volume 11, Issue 1

This issue of VISION: Journal of Indian Taxation has an interesting amalgam of papers that deal with contemporary developments in the field of taxation as well those that offer new conceptual models to deepen our understanding of various aspects of taxation.

In an interesting development of a conceptual model, Rani Jacob theoretically explores the influence of antecedent variables such as taxpayer perception, awareness, benefits, constraints and satisfaction on taxpayer compliance behaviour. The paper adds a theoretical model to the existing body of literature which could serves as a useful input to enable government, tax authorities, policymakers and all other stakeholders to take measures ensuring voluntary compliance from taxpayers.

Digitalisation of economies has virtualised the world and has created new challenges as well as opportunities for tax systems. Two papers in this issue deal with tax related aspects of digitalisation. An insightful paper by Sonakshi Kashyap discusses the applicability and relevance of ‘Permanent Establishment’ rule in the digital economy, and critically analyses the national and international initiatives undertaken to modify the rule. The paper becomes pertinent in light of the fact that digitalisation of economies has virtualised the world, enabling enterprises to make money in foreign jurisdictions without having any tangible physical presence in their territory. This has posed concerns about the efficacy of physical presence based ‘Permanent Establishment’ rule for taxation of the digitalised economy. Another paper by Ankit Chourasiya, and Rupali Saini examine the impact of digitalisation on income tax planning in India. The paper assesses how digitalisation influences income tax planning methods, compliance processes, and overall tax management efficiency. The findings of the paper reveal the positive effects of digitalisation including improved process efficiency, enhanced transparency, increased taxpayer engagement, simplified compliance, and a better overall taxpayer experience.

In the context of the New Tax Regime, the paper by Gurpreet Kaur assesses tax literacy level among individual taxpayers in India. The study reports significant variations in the level of tax literacy on the basis of socio-demographic factors. The authors provide suggestions for personalized state policies, starting tax education early on, and encouraging people to do their own taxes.

There are two papers in this issue of VISION that deal with different aspects of GST. The paper by Priya Jain, M.K. Sharma, Meha Saxena and Shweta Gupta analyses the perception of accounting professionals in relation to taxation before and after implementation of GST in the hotel industry. Employing structured questionnaire, the findings reveal that accounting professionals have good knowledge about GST and its implications. GST has a positive impact as it has broadened tax base and increased revenue of government and hotels. However, there are certain concerns such as difficult administrative and compliance requirement and high penalty on delay in filing returns. The other paper on GST is by Ajay A., Chithirai Selvan M, and Rajasekaran D. who conduct a SWOC (strength, weakness, opportunities and challenges) analysis of GST. The paper is based on practical experience from various stakeholders involved in GST and various secondary sources such as Government reports, and Case studies of Supreme Court and High courts.

Tushar Ranjan Barik and Priyanka Ranawat conduct a comprehensive analysis of the intricacies of corporate tax policy for India’s automobile industry. The paper examines how regulations, economic forces, and industry specifics play a role in shaping tax structures. The analysis also aims to identify areas for improvement in the current tax structure, evaluate existing incentives, and ultimately provide policymakers with insights to create a robust and globally competitive Indian auto industry.
A review paper in this issue by Honey Cleetus is based on ‘Bibliometric analysis of research on tax compliance from 1989-2023’. The analysis uncovers publication trends, identifies key authors, productive countries and institutions, and highlights influential journals in this area. The study's outcomes shed light on publication patterns, network analysis of co-authorship, co-citation, keyword co-occurrence, and bibliographic coupling. This study deepens our understanding of tax compliance research, and provides valuable insights into the current research landscape.
We thank our authors as well as reviewers for their valuable contributions and hope that our readers would find this issue of VISION insightful as always. We would also look forward to suggestions and feedback from our readers for continuous improvement of the journal quality.

Dr. Prasant Kumar Panda
Dr. M. M. Sury
Editors

May kindly visit https://www.journalpressindia.com/vision-journal-of-indian-taxation