A Study of knowledge of Income Tax Act 1961 amongst the people of Maharashtra State

In India first time Sir James Wilson was introduced Tax in the year 1860 where decided to impose it to meet the amount of losses sustained by the government due to Sepoy Mutiny, 1857. After some years, in 1918 a new income tax Act was introduced but it was replaced by another new Act which was passed in 1922. This is the long term Act remained in force to the year 1961-62. On the recommendations of Prof. Nicholas Kaldor, the Wealth Tax Act, 1957, the Expenditure Tax Act, 1957 and Gift Tax Act, 1958 were introduced. In the year 1958, a report on new Income Tax Act was submitted by the Law Commission and based on these recommendations, Income-tax Act, 1961 came into force with effect from 1st of April, 1962. Since 1962 to upto date, several amendments regarding exemption, tax slab, allowance have been made every year through the Union Budget. Now, it has become a regular feature to present the Finance Bill every year along with Union Budget that include rates of income tax for the next year. The researchers have used primary data for the research work. The primary data has been collected by conducting surveys through structural questionnaire from 383 respondents i.e. students, salary persons and research students from Maharashtra. The sample population is selected by using random sampling techniques.