The Hindu Business Line : A pile on one side and the taxman on the other

YOU cannot explain everything, and there are no answers for all questions. Taxmen, however, are averse to mysteries, and so if an assessee is not able to show source of his possessions, there is a problem. Unexplained Income, by T. R. Nagarajan, explains in simple terms that illegal income and evaded income form the pile.

The book, published by Sthira Legal Disclosures (sthiralegalmedia@eth.net) goes into the genesis and growth of unexplained income and tax implications. What gives away most perpetrators is ostentation. "The ingenuity or skill employed in concealing the source or quantum of income often meets a limiting point in the desire of the taxpayer to display his wealth or status," as if to "announce the arrival in society."

The intro speaks of what could be topical with a fresh band of netas to be elected: "A new breed of assessees have come from the political climate prevalent; their known source of income being nil or pathetically low but the wealth garnered during their stay in power is phenomenal. These are the `disproportionate wealth cases', where `disproportionate' is with reference to known sources of legal income."

Rising above the usual grind of tax books that constrain themselves to discussing the statute, Nagarajan devotes attention to topics such as causes of black money, laws that promote corruption, Parliamentary scrutiny, landmark cases and so on.

Taxman encounters difficulties in bringing to net unexplained income. One example is when the assessee says that a valuable possession of his is a gift received from donor who is no more. This is not verifiable fully, points out the author.

"Bequeathed properties particularly jewels and valuables traced to departed ancestors prove difficult to verify from the standpoint of the tax gatherer. Reasonableness of the explanation given by the assessee regarding the source of such jewels or valuables, which do not have sufficient records to support their existence and ownership, is the sole yardstick for acceptance of the statements of the assessee."

Guru Jim

HERE is something I snatched away from the Manage Mentor column: A book that Ken Blanchard praises as "the best management book you ever read." The story of how one street-smart boy without a college education became a seasoned leader, and the tale of how a company losing serious money became the most important profit centre.

James Despain and Jane Bodman Converse give inputs on "unlocking greatness through values-based leadership" in ... And Dignity for All, published by Pearson Education (www.pearsoned.co.in). Jim's intro begins from the gut: "I am not your typical senior executive. I don't have an MBA. I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth." Then how did he learn? "I learned on the job. I watched and I listened. I read and I asked. I tried and I failed. I learned and tried again." That is, perhaps, an MBA in five short sentences. "I began my career as a sweeper in a factory that makes the largest earthmoving equipment in the word. I ended it at the same company — a vice president of a $20 billion corporation."

If that's gripping enough, read on. "The purpose of the book is to enable you to become a more effective leader and to shorten your journey by telling you what took me a lifetime to learn — that true leadership is very different from management."

Now, here are some one-liners you can make posters of: "Leadership is about others and not about self. It is about trust and not about power. It is about producing results by creating cultures where people know it's okay to be unique and different, so they willingly take off their masks, express themselves, and do great things."

Amazing stuff, and I haven't gone beyond the intro!

Long live punctuation

A WAR was lost for want of a nail, we have read. And for want of punctuation, equally disastrous results may ensue. But you tell all those SMS-users and e-mailers, and they would laugh at you with a gory smiley. Lynne Truss, however, has a zero tolerance approach to punctuation, and has written a whole new book on commas and semicolons. They are endangered, so let's preserve them, exhorts Eats, Shoots & Leaves from Profile Books (www.profilebooks.co.uk).

The intro speaks of `satanic sprinkling of redundant apostrophes', `signs of ignorance and indifference', and absence of question mark on a direct question. "Sticklers never read a book without a pencil at hand, to correct the typographical errors," writes Truss, and you may check if you're holding one. "Punctuation marks are the traffic signals of language: they tell us to slow down, notice this, take a detour, and stop," is a definition that the author cites.

Another, given by the stylebook of a newspaper, is that punctuation is a courtesy designed to help readers to understand a story without stumbling. When it isn't used, all buttons fall off and language comes apart because punctuation is the stitching of language.

Truss proclaims: The confusion of the possessive "its" (no apostrophe) with the contractive "it's" (with apostrophe) is an unequivocal signal of illiteracy and sets off a simple Pavlovian "kill" response in the average stickler. "If you still persist in writing `Good Food at it's best', you deserve to be struck by lightning, hacked up on the spot and buried in an unmarked grave.'

What about commas? "A passage peppered with commas — which in the past would have indicated painstaking and authoritative editorial attention — smacks simply of no backbone."

There is "the big final rule for the comma": don't use commas like a stupid person.

Work on value

COST cutting will lead to better profits. Not always. It can be "suicidal", according to Anil Kumar Mukhopadhyaya. "With consistent competition, organisations have already shed a lot of the fat. Any further cost cutting may have teeth on the muscles," he adds, in Value Engineering: Concepts, Techniques and Applications, published by Response Books (www.indiasage.com). VE is a systematic and organised procedural decision-making process designed to ensure the maximum value for the client or the consumer.

There used to be a time when it was thought that what the customer wants is cheap price, whatever the quality. Now, they are "extremely critical of the quality of goods and services, simultaneously demanding lowest cost."

The book informs that VE was born in GE in the 1940s and remained a company secret. Lawrence D. Miles is considered the father of value analysis. "Value Management (VM) has been in practice in India since 1966. But its active propagation started only when the Indian Value Engineering Society (INVEST) was founded in October 1977."

What is value? This is a mystery for many who are blind to what hides behind cost. An anecdote from the book would explain this:

A tourist visiting a handicraft fair was looking for a fashionable hat. But none of the hats on display pleased her. She asked a craftsman to show her a hat that was unique. He thought for a moment and pulled out a long red ribbon and started winding and twisting it, and within minutes, made a hat out of it. It was exquisite and immediately caught the fancy of the customer. She asked, "Price?" He said, "Ten rupees, madam." The tourist was shocked and said: "The ribbon is worth only a few paise, so why would the hat cost so much?" As she went on with her rumblings, the annoyed craftsman pulled at one end of the hat, unwound it and gave her the long ribbon saying, "Ten paise, madam."

Tailpiece

Director: "Then, you whisper into the camera: Shall I tell you the secret of my complexion?"

Model: "After that?"

Director: "We'll shoot for the next commercial where you'd share the secret of your energy."

Model: "At this rate, I would run out of secrets!"

ReadingRoom@TheHindu.co.in

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A pile on one side and the taxman on the other