Do we need changes in economic policies ?

Ch-1 (Part of series on FFIT)
Let us first examine what most major economies of the world are following. The government needs to raise revenue to pay the salaries of the politicians, bureaucrats, for the administration work that they are supposed to do, plus all the other services that they are supposed to provide such as defense, roads, water,
electricity etc. Most of which can be supplied by the private sector. In order to raise revenues they have a tax structure which taxes Income (personal and corporate) and production in the form of Income, Excise, Sales and Octroi. Recently some countries have replaced the sales tax with a VAT (value added tax) or GST (goods andservice tax) these are all intrusive taxes, (local municipal taxes are not intrusive taxes).
All of the above are "Intrusive Taxes" meaning the tax officers can intrude into our personal life by entering your residence, businesses office or factory premises and do a raid/search and seizure. They have the right to open up your business transactions books and ask you any questions on any transaction dating back 5 years and if any of your answers are not to their satisfaction then they have the right to seize your property, lock up your business premises and they can make you pay the back taxes with interest and penalty which could be 10 times the original amount. This puts every possible person under the scrutiny of the tax officials. In India tax officials treat every taxpayer as if we have cheated until you prove you are innocent. This can take years in court. It creates lot of tension for
individuals as well as business owners. In most cases people settle the issue with a bribe to the officers concerned plus pay a nominal amount of actual taxes.
Most people would agree that the bribe amount is a lot more than the actual official amount collected.
Whenever you have an economy having various intrusive taxes, each more complicated than the other and to top it off these tax laws are changed every year,this creates a lot of confusion, fear, anxiety and frustration among the people and the economy does not realize its full growth potential.
Lets take one step back in the past and analyze how and why the concept of taxes came about. The simple answer is that government need money to pay their own salaries, provide administration, infrastructure, defense, hospitals, schools, dams, power plants and a number of other things.
The question here is: does the government need to collect taxes from the people to pay for the above expenses or is there a better way?
There is a better way, without intruding and threatening people's lives. Today's income tax system not only charges an income tax to the higher income
people it also charges at a higher rate of taxation as their income goes higher. This seems unfair and discouraging to the person working harder. Why should a person who works harder or smarter be taxed at an increasing rate on his excess income? This will discourage them to earn higher income or encourage them to hide their income or send their money out of the country to avoid the higher rate of taxes. This makes cheaters out of honest people and creates an open door for bribes and corruption.
It is not a nice feeling for people to work hard/smart and then to save their hard earned money, cheat on taxes. This tax option does not look good either for the taxpayer or the tax collector.