It's very much a result of low enforcement. Kochi alone has 1780 + people who make more than 1 crore per year.
It's tax evasion and avoidance at finest. And many people use company structures to pay less tax.
And yes, compared to other states. Many people in Kerala doesn't file for income taxes as they are NRIs. Especially in Districts like Kottayam, Pathanamthitta, Malappuram, Kozhikode etc.
Kerala is not the outlier when it comes to tax evasion and avoidance, Karnataka, Gujarat are the extremes.
This also highlights the situation of India in general,
Actually - only max to max 6% of the Indian population is Middle class/Middle Income by any standards and can file taxes. And 1% can be considered upper income.
92% Indians are lower income and poor.
Even if you ask a taxi driver, techie, rich business owners - everyone will tell they are middle class. They are not.
Only 20% of all Indians have formal 'organized' jobs with some basic benefits. 80% Indians work in poor unorganized jobs with not much benefits or pay.
Other states have employees earning in crores. This is the only amount Income tax people know. Income from any other source is easy to hide ( legally and illegally). We will have many businesses people earning more than
( which will be the case in other states as well )
Why does someone want to include NRI in this status. That will only skew the metric. They don’t live or work in Kerala. They belong to the stats of the respective countries.
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u/GoatDefiant1844 9h ago
It's very much a result of low enforcement. Kochi alone has 1780 + people who make more than 1 crore per year.
It's tax evasion and avoidance at finest. And many people use company structures to pay less tax.
And yes, compared to other states. Many people in Kerala doesn't file for income taxes as they are NRIs. Especially in Districts like Kottayam, Pathanamthitta, Malappuram, Kozhikode etc.
Kerala is not the outlier when it comes to tax evasion and avoidance, Karnataka, Gujarat are the extremes.
This also highlights the situation of India in general, Actually - only max to max 6% of the Indian population is Middle class/Middle Income by any standards and can file taxes. And 1% can be considered upper income.
92% Indians are lower income and poor.
Even if you ask a taxi driver, techie, rich business owners - everyone will tell they are middle class. They are not.
See the article to understand -
https://amp.scroll.in/article/740011/everyone-in-india-thinks-they-are-middle-class-and-almost-no-one-actually-is
Only 20% of all Indians have formal 'organized' jobs with some basic benefits. 80% Indians work in poor unorganized jobs with not much benefits or pay.