Here’s a novel way to avoid paying tax: kidnap the tax collectors.
In what may be the oddest tax news I’ve read recently, the online paper, Sindh Today, has reported that an Indian man may be charged with kidnapping after he allegedly attempted to abduct two excise officers. According to reports, the driver slowed at the toll barrier in Patiala’s Rajpura to talk with the officials. He then reportedly pushed the tax officials into his car and sped off (no, I can’t figure out how he did it, either). There was no report as to his plans for them.
The driver eventually lost control of the car and ran into a tree. All of the occupants were taken to the hospital.
Charges are pending against the driver, and the investigation continues.
This certainly seems a more direct way to address one’s failure to pay taxes than simply telling the tax officials “I forgot,” as Steve Martin advised many years ago. Kudos to this gentleman for taking the bull by the horns (or the tax official by the lapels, as the case may be).