Tax misery score: India tops list

India has earned the dubious distinction of being the country adding the maximum teeth to its tax regime since last year, says a study by Forbes.

India still maintains a relatively low rank of 23rd least friendly tax climate in this year's Tax Misery Index, topped by France with harshest taxes across the world. The country is however, ranked at the top in terms of the increase in its tax misery score, a collective measure of maximum corporate, personal, social security and sales tax rates.

India was ranked the 35th least tax-friendly jurisdiction in the 2008 list.

The index, an annual global ranking compiled by the Asian edition of US business magazine Forbes, ranks the countries in terms of their tax climate harshness.

The index assesses whether a jurisdiction's tax policy attracts or repels capital and talent by calculating its Misery score. Jurisdictions at the top of the index with high scores impose the harshest taxes, while the most tax friendly are at the bottom.

France, China and Belgium have been named as having the top three harshest tax climates.

Qatar, the UAE and Hong Kong have trumped other economies to retain the friendliest tax climate, according to the 2009 Tax Misery and Reform Index.

About two dozen countries recorded a decline in their tax misery score and these jurisdictions include Switzerland, Italy, the UK, Canada, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Russia and Taiwan.

Besides India, other countries that added to harshness in their tax climate include China, France, Finland, Turkey, Mexico, Luxembourg, Ireland and Thailand.

Jurisdictions with unchanged tax misery score include Germany, the US, Israel, Vietnam, Pakistan, Hong Kong, the UAE and Qatar.

There are eight European nations among the 10 least tax-friendly countries on the list, published in the April 13 edition of Forbes Asia.

"This year, most Asian jurisdictions continue to have more tax-friendly environment compared with other parts of the world. The survey shows that outside of China and Japan, the rest of Asia continues to enjoy stable, low tax advantage," Forbes noted.