Medium-sized firm in India makes 33 tax-related payments/yr

It needs 33 payments in a year, over 20 hours of time every month and up to 61.7 per cent of profits for a medium-sized company to comply with tax laws in India, making the country one of the worst places in the world for 'paying taxes'.
As per the latest 'Doing Business Report' published by the World Bank, India is ranked 156th out of 189 nations in terms of paying taxes. It has slipped two positions on this front from the last year.
Paying taxes addresses the taxes and mandatory contributions that a medium-size company must pay or withhold in a given year, as well as measures the administrative burden in paying taxes.

These measures include the number of payments an entrepreneur must make; the number of hours spent preparing, filing, and paying; and the percentage of their profits they must pay in taxes.
According to the report, the total tax rate in India can be as high as 61.7 per cent, there are as many as 33 payments under the head of profit, labour and other taxes, and the time taken to comply with taxation requirements could be as much as 243 hours.
In terms of time taken to comply with tax related work, India ranks better than the South Asian average where it takes 325.3 hours and its emerging market peers such as China (261 hours), according to a World Bank report.

India was placed 156th position in the overall ranking of paying taxes, above Brazil (177th) and below the Russian Federation (49th) and China, which was ranked 120th.

The United Arab Emirates and Qatar were placed in the first place followed by Saudi Arabia in the third position in the overall ranking.
The report noted that some of the tax reforms in India include easing the administrative burden of paying taxes for firms by introducing mandatory electronic filing and payment for value added tax.
In addition, India has also reduced the administrative burden of paying taxes by abolishing the fringe benefit tax and improving electronic payment.

The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed on June 1, 2014, covering the Paying Taxes indicator calendar year 2013 (January 1, 2013 - December 31, 2013).