Did you or did not say the real reason only 4 % pay income tax is because we ' re piss poor ? Is that the real reason why we pay 4 % 3 %, instead of 20 %~? Your claim implies that the 3 % paying income tax is a legitimate number . Considering anywhere from 1217 % may not being paying what they ' re supposed to it ' s clearly not . And if that ' s not the case you might want to look at your original post . Either it ' s a problem of not being fluent in English or you not remembering what you wrote . For example in the US 45 % of the population pays zero income tax . So clearly on a relative basis considering differences in wealth the 1217 % number suddenly looks a lot more egregious . The bottom like is this , 3 % income tax payers is a very small amount its not because India is piss poor it ' s because majority of those who should be paying taxes don ' t . Precise ? Wtf ?