income tax

Paying income tax with interest money

Q: I live in India, and employed in a company. I get my salary in cheque which would be deposited to my 'saving account in the bank'. It generates interest after every two or three couple of months according to the norms. I pay income tax on my salary and if the interest that is generated reaches a particular amount then I have to pay tax on that also. My question is: Can I use that interest amount in exchange of the income tax I pay?

Dividends from a non-Shariah compliant investment

Q: A person has an investment in a unit trust from the 1970's. The unit trust was not shariah compliant, and thus included investments in alcohol/gambling based companies, interest based financial institutions, as well as ordinary companies.

1. Is it permissible to utilise dividends received from the unit trust to pay income tax for a business?

2. Is it permissible to offset these dividends received from the unit trust against income tax that is deducted from a persons salary by his employer? If this is permissible, can it be offset against amounts deducted for income tax in previous years (as the dividends were already received then, and tax deducted then), or would it only be permissible going forward (as dividends are received and income tax deducted)?

Under declaring one's earnings

Q: My father is a business man. He suppresses his financial state to reduce income tax claims as all other businessman like him do. Many large traders often hire a lawyer who could suppress their financial state intelligently to minimize the income tax payable on their income. As we are part of this country and are required to abide to all the laws as per both religious and ethical requirements, are we committing a sin by not paying the tax on our true financial state? Our government holds right on our income and it is our obligation to pay tax. However, this is a common practice in my country.