A blog to discuss income tax issues! Thats the latest offering from the finance ministry.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes has set up a web log or an online diary on its website. Users can set up their own account and use it like blogs available on any other site.

While users can discuss any topic, the department hopes bloggers will use it as a platform to discuss tax-related issues. The department expects to get some feedback through these blogs on various policies and measures undertaken by it, to understand the needs of the taxpayer better.

For users, the blogging facility will be useful to understand taxation issues. It may just, however, turn out to be a place to find solace for their tax woes.

Some of the posts for instance, discuss teething troubles users are facing with the new income tax return forms.

The Tax Net
The Central Board of Direct Taxes has set up a web log on its website
The CBDT expects to get feedback through the blogs on various policies and measures that it takes
For users, the facility may prove useful to understand taxation issues and find solace for their tax woes
 
At present, many websites in the country offer facilities like discussion boards and chat rooms meant mainly to answer tax queries.

However, the Central Board of Direct Taxess blog is quite novel and it is one of the few government departments to come up with such a service. At present, the blog is facing a few technological snags, which sources claim would be sorted out soon.

The blogging facility is the newest online venture of the department. The Central Board of Direct Taxes has in the past introduced a number of tech-savvy measures like online filing of returns and downloading applications for perma-nent account numbers, to benefit the taxpayers.

The revenue department is also using a number of such measures to collect information on taxpayers and also to arrive at an account of revenue collection figures.