[chdir]

Indian tax code is FAR from simple and FAR from being unambiguous. There are seemingly straightforward cases that can easy land you in soup with the tax authorities because it is so difficult to interpret the language. It simply fails to cover all possible cases. That's not to say that US tax code is leaps & bounds better.

[arihant]

I don't understand what is hard in the language: http://www.incometaxindia.gov.in/Documents/direct-taxes-code...

Indian tax code is beautifully spelled out. It is basically a collection of to-do list items with each item having an extremely simple description. For a nominal Indian, you have to, at the most, read this document till point number 85. All the points are collected in groups. So you if you do not have a non-profit org, for eg., you can just skip that entire section.

Don't judge it by it's length. It is extremely clear. So clear that Income tax is taught in grade 8 and 9 in Indian schools.

[chdir]

Here, read this example on how the Assessing officer interpreted the section 54F and put a restriction on tax exemptions. The tax payer had to fight it out in high court for a seemingly straight forward issue. The real problem here is lack of clarity in income tax rules.

http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/tax/joint-ownershiphouse-va...

Have you tried to work out capital gains for NRIs ever? It's a quagmire. Try the forums at r2iclubforums.com and you'll see the same question being asked again and again. Why? Because tax rules are designed to be difficult for common man to interpret clearly.